American Witch
by Hermione21
Summary: This fic, as the title says, is about an American witch who goes to Hogwarts. And, in a few months, strange things start happening...Hope you'll like it!
1. The Letter-Bringing House-Elf

American Witch

A\N: Hi! One day, I just started writing whatever came to mind, with no prepared plot at all, and I came out with this. I thought it would be great if an American witch could go to Hogwarts, and, on top of that, someone who knew something about the Harry Potter series. No, Harry Potter and his friends are not in this. They went to Hogwarts in the 1990s. They'd be long gone by 2002. Flame me if you will, just don't be that hard on me okay? ^_^ This is the first chapter thing I actually had a lot of fun writing. And I'm not sure of the point of the first entry, except that I'm kind of antisocial myself, so please don't flame me for it…Okay, I'll shut up now, I'm rambling. ^_^ -Hermione2

Disclaimer: Okay, I own all the characters except some of them. J.K. Rowling owns them. She also owns the house elf way of talking, so please don't sue me for having Binky say "miss" too many times. I own Binky, though.

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Chapter 1: The Letter-Bringing House-Elf

5-25-02

Hi. I'm antisocial. I don't mean that I'm hostile, which is one meaning of antisocial. I just find it easier to keep to myself, and I'm not saying that I like it. I only have around 4 or 5 friends, and I like writing and reading more than talking.

However, I wasn't antisocial until fifth grade. I used to have lots of friends. I was popular.

When I was in fifth grade…things got confused. All my friends from 4th grade were in another class. Eventually, we stopped talking to each other when we did everything in different classes. My friend count dwindled down to 1 before I realized that I had to make more friends, and it only went up to about 3 or 4 when I tried. I think that there must be something wrong with my social skills.

I was really glad when summer came. That's 1 1\2 years of being antisocial now. 

I'm fine at the academic part of school, but social…if there was a class for that, I'd probably fail it at this point.

5-26-02

Hi again. I'm very bored. I can't get on the Internet, because my mom is on, and I can't read, because the second part of The Lord of the Rings is pretty boring, and that's what I'm currently stuck on. So, I decided to write.

Anyway-oops, sorry, got to answer the door, no one's home besides me and my mom, and they knocked with her door closed, so I don't think she heard it…

Later

You'll never believe what just happened! Okay, here we go: I answered the door, and there was this…creature standing there! It was a strange little thing; it looked like J.K. Rowling's description of a house elf in the Harry Potter series.

"Good afternoon, miss," it squeaked out. I hadn't thought before that anything could have a voice that high.

"Good afternoon, you don't need to call me miss because my name is Kara, and who are you?" I was ready to bet on it being a house-elf or something, even though that was impossible.

"You is so kind, miss, you is so kind," the creature said.

"My name is Binky, and I is just a house-elf, miss."

"A house-elf?" I managed to squeak out, sounding as high-pitched as Binky. "W-w-where do you work?"

"Hogwarts, miss."

"Hogwarts?!? What are you doing here?!? This is the United States!"

The house-elf, looking a little frightened by my outburst, slowly handed over a folded piece of parchment. Wait--_parchment?_

I snatched it eagerly. There was something written on it in sky-blue ink.

"They always write it in the person's favorite color, miss, or so they told Binky."

Miss K. Ramirez

The Penguin Bedroom

8499 Garden Dr.

San Antonio, Texas

United States

No mistake in the address there. My bedroom can aptly be called "The Penguin Bedroom". When I was little, my dad painted penguins on an iceburg on all of one of my walls. I'd liked the painting so much that I'd never allowed my mom to paint it over, although she thought the coloring was all wrong.

I took a deep breath and unfolded the parchment. I gasped at the first words:

~*Hogwarts School*~

of Witchcraft and Wizardry

I'd been suspecting this all along, but the shock hit me at that moment. A letter from Hogwarts! What could be better? I'd never have to put up with those horrible kids from school again! Wait. What about my friends? Maybe I could think of some way to keep in touch with them. Before reading it, I shot a look at the house-elf.

Why wasn't this sent to me a year ago, and why is Hogwarts accepting me, instead of an American school?" I demanded.

"Well, miss…that's in the letter, if you'll read it, miss," Binky said.

I looked back down at the parchment.

~*Hogwarts School*~

of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore (Order of Merlin: 1st class, and all of those other awards that you'd never hear about save in this letter)

Dear Miss Ramirez,

We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.

Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.

Yours sincerely, 

Minerva McGonagall

Deputy Headmistress

P.S. You probably want to know why we did not send you this letter a year ago. You were late in showing signs of magic. Your school only knew 2 months ago. We are the only school that takes late witches and wizards, so you were transferred to Hogwarts from the American school.

"_Ah, yes," _I thought, "_The late 'sign of magic'. That must have been the time when that banana peel just seemed to appear on the ground for the sole purpose of tripping Arthur Wong just after he'd called me stupid. Didn't think much of it then. Just laughed, cause it felt good to see him made fun of."_

P.S.S. Contact Jorge Bustamante from San Antonio and ask him a quick way to Diagon Alley from where you live.

I looked up, and the elf had left, leaving a ticket for the Hogwarts Express…King's Cross, Platform 9 and 3\4, the usual. I'm a bit nervous about charging straight at a solid barrier.

Wait a minute…Jorge Bustamante is my best friend's father! Is he a wizard? That would be so great if Amanda was a witch too! We'd even have the same trouble with starting late, so we'd both go to Hogwarts! 

Well, before I do anything, I've got to go tell my mom about this!

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A\N: So, did you like it?????? Please review and say you did!

Anyway, I liked writing it, so I warn you, even if I get 14 people flaming me, if I get one person that liked it, I'm going to keep writing. REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!!! Please? ^_^


	2. Preparations

American Witch

A\N: Hi. This is Chapter 2 of my strange chapter fic. Anyway, could you please read and review! All of you that reviewed are SO NICE, even if you flamed ^_^ Anyway, thanks to everyone that liked it.

Disclaimer: So...So far, all the characters belong to me, and Floo Powder and the Knight Bus belong to J.K. Rowling. I also own the Knight Bus' route.

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Chapter 2: Preparations

5-27-01 

When I told my mom that I was a witch, she freaked out _and_ she didn't believe me.

"You're a WHAT?!?"

"Uma witch."

She took a few deep, calming breaths. "No, you're not. What's a house-elf? When did you make _that_ up?"

I sighed. My mother had never read the Harry Potter series. I handed her the letter and ticket, saying, "J.K. Rowling introduced house-elfs in the Harry Potter series, and they're not made up, since Binky gave me this."

She took the letter and ticket suspiciously. "Who's Binky?"

I sighed again. "The house-elf, Mom."

"Right." Obviously, she still didn't believe me.

She read the letter, and her eyes widened slightly. First, she checked to see if it was really written on parchment. It was. Then, she checked that you couldn't get parchment in San Antonio. You couldn't. Next, she checked that it wasn't toxic or anything. It wasn't. Finally, she believed me.

(A\N: Now, if anyone here knows that there is a place where you can get parchment in San Antonio, sorry, because I don't actually know much about San Antonio.)

"So, you admit it?"

She just stared at me in shock with those brown eyes.

"Obviously, you do. Now, we have to inform Small that I am transferring to an English boarding school, contact Jorge Bustamente, go to Diagon Alley and change some of our money to wizard money in Gringotts before buying anything, and finally, Hogwarts."

(A\N: I meant to say Bustamente in the last chapter too, not Bustamante.)

"Why do they await our _owl_?"

Well, see, wizards send their mail with tame owls, and so we have to get an owl at Diagon Alley and send them acceptance. And then, we have to keep the owl when it comes back for future mail correspondence." It was a small setback of being a witch when your mother knew nothing about the wizarding world. However, thanks to the fact that a house-elf showed up instead of an owl, she now got an owl of her own.

"Right. Well, how do we know that this is a good school?"

I coughed in slight impatience. 

(A\N: Well, you wouldn't want me to sigh _AGAIN_, would you? No.)

"Mom, Hogwarts is the safest place in the world. People have said so countless times."

"Oh, fine. I wasn't really comfortable about you going to Small anyway. First, we'll e-mail Small. Knowing that school, I'm sure they will _not_ answer, so we don't need to wait for that."

"Okay. Remember, just tell them I'm going to an English boarding school. No specific information."

So, my mother's gone off to send Small an e-mail, and I decided to take some time to write about it to you.

Now I have to go make sure there are absolutely no other people named Bustamente in the phone book for San Antonio.

Noon (A\N: I thought the actual time would be more accurate than "later".)

I'm done checking and my mom's done e-mailing. There are no other people named Bustamente in the phone book for San Antonio! Now, all we have to do is get in touch with Amanda's dad.

12:20 PM

I told my mom Amanda's phone number, and she dialed it on her office phone, so they wouldn't know who we were at the chance that he wasn't a wizard and he thought she was crazy. Then, when she got him on the phone, she asked him if he knew a quick way to Diagon Alley from San Antonio, because her daughter was starting at Hogwarts.

I wished very much in that moment that he really was a wizard and that he didn't think she was crazy.

It seemed that she got a good answer, like, "Yes, I know a quick way and I am a wizard," because she started asking him things such as, "What's Floo Powder?"

I groaned. Floo Powder. Why hadn't I thought of that? Oh, yeah. We don't have any.

I started making signs to her that I wanted to talk to him, and she handed me the phone, after saying, "I'm going to put my daughter on the phone. She knows much more about this whole wizarding thing than I do."

"Hello," I said calmly. "I've guessed from my mother's side of the conversation that you say we could use Floo Powder."

"Yes."

"Well, then, I have a question. Since we don't have any Floo Powder, because we're all muggles in this family except me, is there another way? Say, the Knight Bus?"

"Well, actually, I'm not sure if the Knight Bus goes through the United States.I think it's just an England thingLet me check it's routeExcuse me a minute."

"Okay."

I waited in excitement. He was a wizard! Maybe Amanda was a witch!

In a minute, he came back, and said, "Actually, I've found a part of the route I hadn't known about. It'll go through England all day, but it'll also go through other countries at the same time in time brackets. For example, it'll go through America from 2 PM to 2:30."

"Oh. Thank you. You have a daughter named Amanda, right?" I asked.

"Yes, but-"

"Is she a witch?"

"Yes, actually. She just got her letter yesterday. She should have gotten it last summer, but she was a year late"

"Can I speak to her?"

"Do you know her from somewhere?."

"She's a friend from school. Small Middle School. I was a year late too. We're in the same grade."

"Yes, she goes there. All right, then. Wait."

"Thank you."

Then, a new voice came on the phone. Amanda's. "Hello?" she said.

"Hi Amanda. This is Kara," I said.

"Hi! I thought so."

"Did you hear from your dad?"

"Hear what?" she said in confusion.

"I'm a witch too."

"What?!? Oh, that's so great! We can go together!" she said enthusiastically.

"Yes, and actually, I was wonderingcan we go to Diagon Alley with you?" I asked slowly.  
"Sure, I guess"

"Thanks, because my mom's totally lost, even she admits it, and we'd be fine alone, with me there, but going with you would probably be better, because you're a half-blood, at least, andyeah. Are you a half-blood or a pure-blood, anyway?"

"I'm a half-blood.Wait a sec."

I waited until Amanda informed her dad and said it was okay and that we were going on the Knight Bus tomorrow, and to be at her house by 1:45 PM, and then I hung up.

"Mom!"

"Yes, I know, we're going to Diago Alley or whatever it is with them on the Knight Bus, because Amanda's a witch too."

"Exactly. And it's Diagon Alley, mom. We're leaving for their house tomorrow at about 12:30 PM, and we have to be there by 1:45."

So, now I'm writing this, and next I'm going to stare at the ceiling and think about Hogwarts until my dad comes home so I can tell him, since there's no one to talk to at the moment, or maybe read my list of things to bring. I wonder what Diagon Alley will be like.

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Hi again! Did you like it? Please, please, pretty please, like it! Anyway, at least review -Hermione2 


	3. Diagon Alley

American Witch

A\N: Hi! Here's the third chapter! By the way, I noticed in the last chapter that I made a lot of mistakes with the point of view stuff. Sorry, I've always written in third-person until now, and it's kind of weird for me to adjust to saying "I" all the time. Oh, and about my ficI was on a bout of craziness at the time. I hadn't even had that much sugar! However, please don't inform a psychiatrist, because they annoy me, and then YOU will annoy meand so on, blah blah blah. ^_^ Anyway, I'm rambling, so let's get on with this chapter!

-Hermione2

Disclaimer: I own the Knight Bus' other-country route (I say it _AGAIN, _since it's in this chapter)Miss Silverthorn and her shop, The Owl Shop, the owlJorge Bustamente, the first names of some of the authors on the book list, and the name of Amanda's house. Amanda, Kara, and Kara's mom own themselves, because they're based on people I know. J.K. Rowling owns herself too, and she also owns everything else in this chapter and Chapter 2.

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Chapter 3: Diagon Alley

5-28-02

Hi! I told my dad that I was a witch yesterday night, and it was pretty much the same as with my mom. That's natural, of course. I can still hardly believe it myself. Me, a witch! And going to Hogwarts! I never thought of myself as that special. Sure, I can see Amanda as one, but me? I can't even picture it.

Right now, it's about 11 AM. I just got up and got dressed. I'm really lazy whenever I get out of school.

Well, my mom's calling me to eat lunch so we won't be late to Amanda's house.

You know, it's strange that Amanda even went to my school before now, because they live about an hour away from us. I don't see how they could live in the boundary lines of my school. Maybe she transferred.

Oh well, I need food. I'm going for lunch. Not going to write any more just now.

4:30 PM

Diagon Alley was awesome! It was even better than the description in the Harry Potter books!

But first I'll tell you about the Knight Bus.

We got to Amanda's house at about 1:40 (never thought we'd get to be early, I'm always late for stuff), and Amanda and I just talked about stuff at Hogwarts for about fifteen minutes, until it was time for the Knight Bus to come through the United States.

Then, we went outside. Amanda just lifted her right hand out in the air, and the Knight Bus came. We were the first ones on, so we had pretty much a straight trip to Diagon Alley, except when a few witches from Wichita got on. Ha ha. WITCHita. Maybe that's why they picked that town.

Diagon Alley looked really great. There were all sorts of magic shops, and Amanda and I couldn't wait to check them out. First, we went to Gringotts for my mom to change her muggle money and for Amanda's dad to get some money out of their vault. Personally, I don't think the goblins were that great. Not very friendly.

I went with Amanda and her dad to open their family vault. They had _piles_ of money. It was unbelievable. I wondered why they hadn't used it as muggle money. They could have been rich. 

Actually, I discovered the reason for that when I came back and saw how much wizard money my mom had. $20 dollars gave you about 100 galleons. She had about 200 galleons, 60 sickles, and 10 knuts. That money might last for another _year_! She's keeping the leftover money in the bottom of one of her drawers right now. 

After we got out of Gringotts and we all got used to the sunlight, which was obviously brighter than Gringotts, my mom and Amanda's dad went with our lists to go get our Potions stuff, and Amanda and I started went to the wand shop: Silverthorn Wands.

Apparently, Mr. Ollivander got too old to run a shop or something, and was replaced by Miss Silverthorn and her shop. Shame, really. They'd been making wands since sometime-BC, and I would have liked to see the shop.

Miss Silverthorn's shop was small and _happy_, somehow. Just being there made you feel good. The shelves were all crammed with the boxes for the wands. As soon as we came in Miss Silverthorn came over.

"Hello," she said. "You came here for your wands?"

We both nodded.

"Alright, then. Let me see what I can find."

Apparently, she didn't need to measure us or anything like Mr. Ollivander because she just turned to the shelves to choose boxes. Maybe the tape measure was just for show.

"Hmm" She suddenly turned to me. "You like reading, correct?"

"Umyes. How did you know that?"

"I'm a Seer, dear. I'm just a small one, not very powerful, but I can tell people's personalities."

"And you, Amandaa half-bloodyou're very friendly, right? Unlike Kara here.muggle-born. Tends to keep to herself, but nice when you keep at it."

We both nodded again.

"Right, then" she said. "Think I've got a good wand for you, Kara. Cherry wood and unicorn hair, very bendable, almost like a contortionist, that wand, and 12 inches."

I took the wand and waved it in a circle. Sparks all the colors of the rainbow came out and whirled around the tiny shop. I jumped in happiness and smiled. Holding that wand gave me a strange feeling, like something warm going through me. I decided something then and there. I would learn as much magic as I could, just to use this wand.

"That's the prettiest display we've had in a while!" Miss Silverthorn said. "Now, a wand for you, Amanda

"Think I've got something. Made of willow, eleven inches, bendy, not like a contortionist though, sorry, and with a phoenix feather."

Amanda waved it, and soon songbirds were flying out of the non-existent windows. Miss Silverthorn waved _her_ wand, and the windows came back. She left the songbirds.

"Didn't know you liked birds quite that much," Miss Silverthorn laughed.

We paid 1 galleon and 1 sickle for my wand, and 1 galleon, 1 sickle, and 5 knuts for Amanda's wand, said goodbye and left the shop, already planning about where we could look up spells.

We met our parents outside the Apothecary (where the Potions supplies were) and went to Flourish and Blotts for our books. Once we got inside, I nearly gasped with delight at all the books in there. Amanda laughed at me, and I told her with what Amanda described as a "very, VERY, very, _very_ happy" face to be quiet and let me look at the books. 

There were all kinds of books! Some were as thick as both of my hands together, and others were about 10 pages. Some were bound in silk, some in leather, and so on. Some were black, and some were tie-dye. Very big contrasts.

I asked my mom for my list and read the part for books. I think I'll copy it here.

COURSE BOOKS

All students should have a copy of each of the folllowing:

_The 2000 Edition of the Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)_-Marjorie Goshawk _A History of Magic_- Hilda Bagshot _Magical Theory_-Albert Waffling _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_-Eric Switch _One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_-Lydia Spore _Magical Drafts and Potions_-Arsenius Jigger _Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_-Newt Scamander _The Dark Forces_: _A Guide to Self-Defense_-Kent Trimble So, first I had to get my school books_then_ I could have some funBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Umsorry about that. You've just had an introduction sample of my crazy side. Believe me, you'll see more later

Anyway, on with my journal, which oddly I started writing in just in time for thisOh well.

When I set off in search of my books, they really weren't that hard to find. It was just like in a library. All I had to do was find the author. It made it kind of boring, really.

_The Standard Book of Spells _looked okay when I skimmed through it. Good spells.

_A History of Magic _was, of course, all about the history of magic. From what I could see, it started off with the beginnings of witches and wizards, then the beginnings of the magical community, thenblah, blah, blah. I think you get it. All beginnings. Not quite as many endings.

_Magical Theory_ugh. BO-RING!!!!!!!!!!! Well, of course, I'd never liked theory of any kind, especially not piano theory, so maybe somebody else might like it. Although I couldn't help thinking at the time that only a person recently escaped from a mental hospital would like a book that boring.

I took a brief skim through _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration _and saw what looked like some pretty hard spells. Why? It's so much easier _not_ to be challenged

_One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi_ was kind of boring in my point of view. I never really understood the point of those books where it's just a list of stuff. It had some information about the Herbs and Fungi, of course, but I'm also not really into botany. I've never really studied it or anything.

_Magical Drafts and Potions_ has a really creepy writing style, but otherwise it's okay But seriously, the writing style is creepy. Quote: "_If you do not put the shredded daisy in this potion, you will poison every living thing the potion touches"_ I mean, don't you agree that it's a pretty creepy writing style? I mean, he could have said "Be sure to put in the shredded daisy" and been done with it. But NO.he just _had_ to make it creepy and mention poison to every living thing.

_Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them_ looked very interesting. I haven't had a chance to read it yet (I'm planning to read all of my books. They look interesting.). However, it's probably going to be the first thing I read.

_The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Defense_ looked okay. I don't really have much of an opinion about it.

Anyway, when we were done buying our school books, I got _Hogwarts, A History_ and I also got a book on Quidditch. I want to know some more about Quidditch before I go to Hogwarts, or I'll be completely lost.

Then, we went over to Madam Malkin's and got two cauldrons, two telescopes, two trunks, an owl, and a cat. I got a snowy owl, and Amanda got this really sweet white cat. I also got a set of wizard chess.

Madam Malkin looked kind of old, but nice. She had Amanda and I stand on stools and measured us. Then she magicked some robes and gave them to us to buy.

Then, we were done. It was around 3:00, so we had to go to the Leaky Cauldron and ask for some Floo Powder. Dreaded Floo Powder. I was _not_ happy about this. I didn't much like the sound of traveling by fire. 

Amanda told me to yell "Sparrow's Perch" when I stepped in the fire, which was the name of their house. It was a good name. I'd seen a lot of sparrows over there when we went over earlier.

Amanda then stepped in, yelled "Sparrow's Perch!", and disappeared.

Then, my mother cautiously went over to the fire and put a foot in. She seemed relieved about something. Then she stepped completely in, yelled the same thing, and disappeared. I couldn't believe she'd just done that. She's my mother! She's not supposed to be worry about fire _less_ than me.

I didn't want to be outdone by my mother, so I stepped straight in. Surprisingly, the fire didn't burn at all. It just went around me. I yelled "Sparrow's Perch!" with a relieved mind.

I felt myself whirling around, and I tried not to scream in case I passed a fireplace and someone heard me. Then, I landed on my feet (thankfully) in Amanda's house. Then, I kind of rocked back and forth and had to be held upright and pulled out of the fireplace by my mother. Good thing I'd eaten about two hours ago, or I probably would have vomited.

Then, Amanda's dad crashed into the fireplace as soon as I got out of it. Surprisingly, he hadn't broken any bones at all, like you would expect from that crash. 

My mom and I said goodbye, and we thanked the Bustamentes for coming with us and left.

Now, I'm back at home. I'm planning to read my books now. I DON'T LIKE FLOO POWDER.

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Hi! So, did you like this chapter? I hope you did. Kara and Amanda liked it. They had a good timePlease review! Even flame, but if you have to criticize it, say Soliqua (my crazy muse) is bad. She's the one who thinks of these things. She's obviously the one that causes my insanity. Who but a crazy muse would have the name Soliqua? And it's weird...these chapters just keep getting longer. Maybe that's a good sign. First one was 8 KB. Second one: 10 KB. This one was 16 KB. The chapters just keep on getting longer...Never thought I'd say that about my own writing...I usually write short things. AnywayI say it again, I hope you like this chapter, and REVIEW!!!!! I am insane. ^_^

-Hermione2 


	4. Welcome to Hogwarts

American Witch

A/N: Hi! So, the fourth chapter is here! Thanks to thevery few people who have reviewed. Anyway, let's get on with the chapter. You know, I think I might actually finish this story, or at least get pretty far. By the way, sorry if the British people don't sound British. I'm American, rememberAnd even if a lot of people are replaced and Dumbledore isn't replaced at Hogwarts, it's because there has to be SOMEBODY left, if it's only Dumbledore.

By the way, when I said Grade 1 of _The Standard Book of Spells_ in Chapter 3, I meant Grade 2. Sometimes I get confused with my own stories. Sorry. I really should check them over carefully. 

Disclaimer: Soum, everything from the Harry Potter books belongs to J.K. Rowling, and everything else is mine. Oh, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy belongs to Douglas Adams. Jesus owns the, "Let the little children come to me," quote, because he said it. There. Done. I think I shall try to make these shorter and shorter...

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Chapter 4:Welcome to Hogwarts

6-12-02

I've read all my books by now. I really hope I remember enough to get good grades. That would be phenomenal, since I have such a horrible memory. I'll probably get good grades anyway though, because I always have. Of course, that was in Muggle schoolI hope I'm up to this

It's a new school. I'm going to have to meet a new set of people. Typical. Just after I get used to Small, I have to go to a new school, and it's _Hogwarts_, of all places. Castle-full of people to get used to!

Speaking of Hogwarts, I just discovered yesterday that my Hogwarts Express ticket was taped to the list. I hadn't noticed it before. I'm really glad I finally saw it, because I wouldn't have wanted to go to Platform 9 3/4 without a ticket. Who knows if that whole barrier thing would even work without a ticketYou don't seem to need it for anything else.  
Oh, and I've decided to call my owl Lilac. My owl. Never thought I'd see myself writing those words.

8-31-02

I'm going to Hogwarts tomorrow! I'm going tomorrow! I'm so excited! and kind of nervous tooI've packed all my stuff in my trunk, put Lilac in her cage (finally, I've been letting her fly around all summer), and gotten my ticket. I'm so nervous, yet excited at the same time. Amanda, me, Lilac, Snow (Amanda's cat), and all our parents are going to King's Cross by the Knight Bus tomorrow. Thankfully, the train leaves at 3 PM, so we can do that. We don't have to use the dreaded Floo Powder Well, got to get some sleep now, if I can

9-1-02

I'm on the Hogwarts Express now. We're in the last compartment. I almost forgot to bring this journalI'm too forgetful

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about the barrier. When we got there, I was _so scared._ Amanda was biting her lip and trembling. She does that when she's really scared. We said a very long goodbye to our parents, and then we faced the barrier resolutely.

"Bye, Mom! Bye, Dad!" I said one last time. Then, Amanda and I ran forward with our carts. 

The stone wall was approaching faster and faster. I felt certain I was going to die, but I couldn't stop my feet. It was just like the time when I'd knocked over a player on the other team in basketball because I couldn't stop. All my friends made fun of me, because I'd practically tackled her without meaning to. This time, however, the consequence would have been fatalif the barrier had been solid. To my complete surprise, I passed through the barrier and found myself facing the Hogwarts Express. 

Amanda and I slowed ourselves down. The whole train was as reddish-orange as fire. I know it was scarlet or something in the books. Can't explain the change in color. Maybe somebody painted it over?

There were kids leaning out of windows everywhere and standing on the platform. Lilac hooted in response to some other owls, and Amanda had to stop Snow from running to a group of cats. Amanda got some scratches as a victory prize. I patted her on the head.

We walked forward slowly with our trunks. We were nervous, but our trunks were also very heavy, so we couldn't have moved faster even if we wanted to.

We just barely managed to lift our trunks in the baggage compartment, and then we wandered around looking for seats. And here I am, in the last compartment, writing this. 

Oh! Byehave something to do

10:30 PM

Somebody came into our compartment when I stopped writing. It was a girl with slightly curly black hair and bluish-green eyes. Even though I was a girl myself, my first thought of her was that she was really pretty. However, she had a kind of mood around her that seemed to say, "This girl's not happy."

"Umhi," the girl said. "Are any of these seats taken?" To my surprise, she had an American accent, not British.

I smiled at her, glad to find somebody else on this train who was an American, and said, "No. You can sit anywhere in here."

"Thanks," the girl said, and sat down. "My name's Elena. What about you? You're American?"

"My name's Kara. We're both American," I answered, gesturing at Amanda.

"Yeah. We're American. My name's Amanda," she said.

"How old are you?" I asked Elena.

"Twelve. I really should have gone to a school a year ago."

"Us too! That's why we got to go to Hogwarts. We were late in showing magic."

"Yeah, that was my situation. I was afraid I was a Squib. I'm a pure-blood. Really glad I got to go here. The Harry Potter books are my favorite books ever! It was such a good source to learn about what I'd be doing in school, and it was really interesting too. I wasn't allowed to tell anyone it wasn't a fiction book."

"They're almost my favorite books, but I like The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy better," I said.

"I think it'll be really great to go to Hogwarts, don't you?" Elena seemed to be glowing with happiness. I knew the feeling. I probably was too. I hadn't had a first conversation this long in over a year. I'm a little antisocial, but I do want friends.

"Yeah! Too bad that Harry Potter isn't going here anymore. That'd be fun."

"Yeah"

Elena was the best person to have a conversation with that I'd ever met after Amanda. She turned out to be really nice. Even the unhappy mood about her disappeared . 

Amanda, Elena and I talked for the whole train ride. I was surprised we managed to keep up the conversation for that long. Judging by the Harry Potter books, the journey must take hours. 

Then, we changed into robes with a flick of our wands five minutes before we got there. I'd learned a spell that taught me to do that. It really surprised me that spells were that easy. I taught Amanda and Elena the spell too.

When the train stopped, I froze in my seat for about five seconds and couldn't move for that period of time. Amanda bit her lip and trembled slightly. When I regained movement in my hand, I patted her head. That seemed to calm her momentary fears. She was quite outgoing and didn't really mind standing up in front of people. Elena just kind of seemed to turn a little bit paler.

"Wonder what it'll be like to stand up in front of a castle-full," I almost whispered.

Elena answered, "I don't really want to think about that."

Apparently, she was just as shy as I was about getting up in front of people. At least, she was as shy about getting up in front of a castle.

"I hope I get put in Ravenclaw," I said. I'd always thought Gryffindor was okay, but I liked Ravenclaw the best. I started winding some of my short hair around my finger nervously.

We walked off the train. "Hey, first years, or late 2nd years! Had a batch of them this year" 

We looked toward the source of the yelling and saw a man with long red hair and dragonhide boots.

"Hello, first years. Bill Weasley at your service," he said, grinning.

"Bill Weasley? Ron's brother???" I said.

"What? Oh! Yeah, I amyou're a muggle-born?"

"Yup."

"American, too."

"Yup."

"2nd year."

"Yup." Yup' seemed to be the only word in my head at the time.

"Rightlet's go then!"

We all trudged up the path to the boats, and then, to the castle.

One of the first years came up to us.

"Do you know what the test is? My uncle wouldn't say, but he said it was really hardand none of the muggle-borns will tell me either."

I laughed. "It's just-"

Elena finished for me, but not with the words I was thinking of. "It's just as your uncle said. It's really hard. Won't tell you anything else."

"Why'd you do that?" I said, after the first year had gone away. "It's just an innocent first year who wants to know what the test is. You should've let me tell him the truth."

"Well, yes, but won't it be fun when he sees that all he has to do is put on a hat? And it's part true really, because the hat sounds kind of annoyingwhich is a kind of hardship"

"Aaaaah! I'm just going to go tell him the truth," I said, exasperated. Elena looked threatening. As I'd just learned, she had an unfortunate liking for pranks. "Finepart of the truth. Now, will you not kill me?"

"Fine. But make it very vague."

Suddenly, I saw the bit of humor in it and smiled. "Okay."

I went over to the first year. " Scuse me."

The first year turned around. "Yeah?"

"The test is hardbut not in the way you think."

I left the first year looking very confused.

I told Elena what I'd said and how the first year had looked. She laughed.

"Excellent! You'll be a great at helping me with pranks in no time! This is a great place for pranks! These first years seem to believe almost anything."

We got to the boats, and Elena, Amanda and I got in one of them. I insisted on rowing, so I got that job. 

Once we ran into the stone wall while everyone else went through the curtain of ivy and almost poked a hole in the boat. All three of us started laughing. The first years passing through the curtain of ivy stared at us. That shut me up immediately, because I don't like to be stared at, but the other two just kept on laughing. 

"Okay," I said, trying to keep the extra spasms of laughter stifled. "Let me get it back on track."

I backed up, then went through the curtain and walked up to the front door.

OkayI'm going to try and go to sleep now, because one of my roommates is yelling at me for keeping a candle burning.

11:15 PM

I failed. I can't sleep. I think I'm too homesick. Otherwise, I would be asleep already. I'm so tired. However, I've never been this far away from home before.Anyway, my roommate's asleep now, so I'm going to keep on writing.

When we all got to the door, Bill knocked, and the door was swung open by a witch. She was dressed all in turquoise, from her head to her foot, and her clothes were all tarnished with nail polish and nail polish removerNo, not really. That was just a messed up version of part of _The Night Before Christmas_. What she really looked like was this: She was dressed in black, and she was wearing absolutely no nail polish at all. She was also kind of short. She could have passed for a teenager if she'd looked just a bit younger.

"Hello, Bill. I can take them now," she said, smiling. Her teeth were about as white as snow.

"Wow. She must be obsessed with toothpaste," I whispered to Elena. She giggled silently. "Or maybe obsessed with even _eating_ toothpaste. It's not normal to have teeth that white."

"Maybe it's magic."

"Yeah, quite probable, actually."

We then followed the witch into the castle. The front hall was HUGE. You could fit several elephants in it--stacked up.

We passed the Great Hall and the Hogwarts students, then packed ourselves into a little room down the hall.

The teacher stood at the front of the room, just by the door.

"I am Professor Bradley. I think I will shorten my speech a bit this year, because I have many other things to do besides wasting my time with a crowd of new students.

Wow. Somebody has a big attitude, I thought.

"When you go into the Great Hall in a few minutes, you will be sorted into your houses: Ravenclaw, Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. I doubt that any of you will be very good students." There were some nervous laughs.

Mean woman. I think she must have been a Slytherin, if she went to Hogwarts. I hope I'm not in any of her classes when I get my schedule tomorrow. I wonder what she teaches. 

"Thank you. That is all. When I come to get you, I expect you to be prepared and somewhat decent-looking."

I glared as she went out.

"Wow, is she mean," I said to Amanda and Elena. "I thought welcoming speeches were supposed to be encouraging. None of us will be good students! Ha! I mean, we'll probably be better students than she is a teacher. I sure hope I'm not in any of her classes."

"Yeah," Amanda agreed. "She definitely has an attitude problem.

After about five minutes, Professor Bradley came and got us, and we got into a line. Then we walked into the Great Hall. We were right in front of the High Table, so I couldn't see the teachers. However, I could see plenty of students.

I felt very nervous and out of place. I mean, wouldn't you? I'm tall for my age anyway, and I looked even taller when I had all these younger people by me. I get embarrassed when I'm one of the tallest people in a group. You would be surprised how much difference a year makes. I had a sudden urge to grab my own hair and pull it. Elena's long hair also looked very tempting, just hanging halfway down her back. However, I'm at least a little bit sane, and I didn't follow those urges.

Then, Professor Bradley announced the new group of students, including us. I was trying to find ways to avoid looking at the crowd when Professor Bradley said something that nearly made me collapse on the ground in fear. I have a very severe case of stage fright.

"Among the new students, we have three transfers from the United States in the second year: Amanda Bustamente, Elena Greenweld, and Kara Ramirez. Welcome them to Hogwarts if you see them." 

She didn't look at all sincere about it, since that might be a possible way of making us happy, and that went against her nature. She's a mean woman, as I said. I was just holding my head as if I had a headache. Didn't make me happy at all to be mentioned.

Then, thankfully, we started the Sorting. However, I will still shaking from standing up too long and also from nervousness, I guess.

The hat was placed on the chair, and all the muggle-borns stared at it, expecting it to sing. However it merely said, "I wasn't able to think of a song this year, so ha!"

Everyone stared at the Sorting Hat--in disbelief, now.

"Anyway, as some holy guy said, Let the little children come to me' and let's get on with this Sorting! Just put me on, and I'll sort you. And no, I haven't gone insane, I just haven't been able to think of a song, as I said"

Everyone just kept staring at the Sorting Hat for a few seconds. The Sorting Hat must have changed a lot since the Harry Potter days

Then, Professor Bradley cleared her throat and said the first name.

"Bishop, Rachel." A girl with long brown hair stepped out of the line and seated herself on the stool.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" the Hat shouted. Rachel went over to the table second from the left.

"Bishop, Ryan."

"HUFFLEPUFF!" I wondered if we were all going to be in Hufflepuff.

"Bracken, Corbin." He was a Gryffindor. I thought with relief that we weren't all going to be in Hufflepuff.

"Bracken, Sidney."

"GRYFFINDOR!" It seemed like the Sorting Hat had a "brother and sister go together" kind of plan.

"Bratton, Lily." Poor Lily,' was my first thought. If she's unpleasant at all this year, people are going to call her Brat because of her last name

However, Lily was in Ravenclaw. She was smart. She ought to know what her last name can do to her. She'll be fine.

Then, there were a few more people sorted. Next, Amanda was up.

"Bustamente, Amanda."

I waited.

"HUFFLEPUFF!" That made sense. Amanda has a really nice and forgiving nature. I'm not half as nice as her.

Then, we went on throught the C people--and the D people.and the E peopleThis was getting pretty boring, as you might guessthe F peopleand the G people! The fact that Elena would be up soon was my first thought. I started listening again.

"Gibbins, Colby." Strange first name. 

"SLYTHERIN!" 

"Gilmore, Geoffrey." Another strange first name.

"GRYFFINDOR!" He'll probably get teased.

"Goode, Anne."

"RAVENCLAW!" Yay for her.

A few more namesand then Elena.

"Greenweld, Elena."

"RAVENCLAW!" I cheered very hard at that statement, happy that one of us so far was in Ravenclaw.

Then, the rest of the G peoplethe H people and so on to Q. I was ready to collapse in just a few minutes by then. Then, they called my name.

"Ramirez, Kara," Professor Bradley said.

I looked around. All the students looked like they were yearning to start eating. I thought I'd better hurry up for them, so I went over to the Sorting Hat, put it on my head, and sat down.

Almost at once, I heard this little voice in my head.

_Where are you to go?_ it said. _Not Slytherin, you don't really want much power, you like to stay where you are_

_Yes, you're right about that,_ I thought.

_Maybe Hufflepuff, you're very soft-hearted_

_Gryffindor's just not for you, somehow_

_You have a good mindRavenclaw would be nice_

_So, Hufflepuff or Ravenclaw?_

I thought about this. Amanda was in Hufflepuff and Elena was in Ravenclaw. No matter which way I went, I'd have a friend there. It was a tough choice. I'd known Amanda longer, but I wanted to be in Ravenclaw so much.

_Ravenclaw,_ I finally decided. I thought that the house I wanted and a friend was better than a well-known friend and a house I didn't want.

_All right then_the Sorting Hat said

"RAVENCLAW!" 

I took off the hat and walked to the Ravenclaw table while the other Ravenclaws cheered. I sat right next to Elena. We high-fived each other.

The Sorting Hat finished sorting, and then Albus Dumbledore stood up. Let's just say he looked exactly like all the descriptions of him anywhere, because I'm tired and want to try and get to sleep soon.

I got ready to listen intently.

Dumbledore said, "I have some announcements for the new school year. As always, second years who are interested in being on the Quidditch team can go to the tryouts in October. There will be more information about the tryouts in the future."

"Why didn't I remember to get a _broom_?" I said to Elena.

"Um, you don't know how to fly?" she offered.

"Oh yeah."

"You can get one and I'll try and teach you."

"Thanks."

Dumbledore continued. "The Forbidden Forest is off limitsagain, as always. No more announcements, except my favorite kind of Muggle sweet: a lemon drop." I should try that method of ending a speech sometime. I love being weird. That would be a way to end a speech among people as crazy as I am. The feast appeared and we ate, and ate---and ate. My stomach was nearly dragging me down by the time the feast was over.

Then, a prefect took us to the Ravenclaw's common room. It was on the fifth floor behind a painting. When we got there, there was a horse in the painting, contentedly munching grass. A slim woman entered the painting to stand by the horse, apparently hers, and ask the password.

"Knowledge golden," the prefect said. The painting made a clicking sound. The prefect pushed it aside, and everyone climbed through a hole in the wall to the Ravenclaw common room.

There were blue walls, couches, chairs, and a blue carpet. The Ravenclaw color. Also my favorite color. Lucky me. The tables were wooden and were just regular brown. Thank God, because blue tables would be going completely overboard. After looking at the common room, I went up the winding staircase on the left with the rest of the girls. There are two towers, apparently, where the dormitories are. 

There are six other girls in the second year dorm with me: Elena, Adair, Adela, Andrea, Stacey, and Kira. Adair and Adela are sisters. Adela's adopted, which makes since. She looks nothing like her sister. Adela has blond hair and blue eyes. Adair has brown hair and brown eyes. They all seem pretty nice so far. Well, except Adair is the one who told me to get rid of the candle. Of course, that also something any sane person would do when they were trying to sleep. She's probably not that mean.

I don't know who the boys are yet. I guess I'll know tomorrow.

Well, good night. I'm so tired I could just fall asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

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So, was that good? Maybe so, maybe not is my point of view. It all depends on what your review says, so please, read and review! Yes, I proofread this, so if it still has something wrong with it, feel free to review, point out my mistakes, call me a blockhead, and say that my sight is failing. ^_^

The Sorting Hat didn't sing because a)I couldn't think of a song, and b)The Sorting Hat didn't want to. He said that he thought it was a stupid tradition. He said he'd quit his job in my story if I made him sing...so I didn't. ^_^

I'm going to try and post the next chapter pretty soon. I bet this chapter was even longer than Chapter 3. That's why it took longer than the others. Let me checkyup, it's longer. 26 KB. Chapter 3 was 16 KB.

Bye! Review!

-Hermione2


	5. The First Classes

American Witch

A\N: Hello! MARSHMALLOWS ARE GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^_^ Sorry, I don't think the effects of the marshmallows that I ate at lunch have worn off yet MARSHMALLOWS ARE GREAT! ^_^ That's my favorite smiley-face.

Anyway, here's the fifth chapter at last. Sorry it's taken so long, if anyone really cares. I've had a lot of homework. I think this is the mid-year homework load. Hopefully, it'll be over soon. This is the longest chapter so far. 27 KB. Chapter 4 is second longest with 26 KB.

I know that I said that Harry Potter and his friends wouldn't be in this, but it's my story, and I've changed my mind. Some of them might be, just not the way you're used to themso ha! 

Disclaimer: What belongs to me belongs to me, and what belongs to J.K. Rowling belongs to J.K. Rowling. There. Done. Yip-yip-HOORAY!!!!!!! I made it shorter!

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Chapter 5: The First Classes

9-2-02

Hellllllllllllllllllllo, world! I had a pretty good day of classes so far.Except for Arthur. I just had lunch. I'm taking advantage of the extra time before my next class to write in here.

First of all, when I went to breakfast, I didn't get any mail. Didn't expect any, but too bad anyway. The prefects in our house passed out our schedules. When I was done with breakfast, I went to my first class: Herbology. 

I have that on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and today was Monday. Oh, and by the way, Herbology is the earliest class in a day, and I only go on some days. Herbology starts at 9 AM. At my old school, classes started at 7:45 AM. This is paradise!

We have Herbology with Professor Sprout. You know, journal, the lady from the Harry Potter books. Unfortunately, we have it with the Slytherins too. That's how I met Arthur Wong--in Herbology. 

I was walking to the greenhouses for Herbology with Elena, just looking around, and I saw him. Arthur Wong. He was talking to another boy, and he saw us when he glanced toward the greenhouses.

"Look!" he said very loudly to the other boy. "It's the new Mudbloods!"

Unfortunately, Elena and I were coming to Herbology rather early, so the field was quite empty besides Arthur and the other boy. No teachers to tell him off. Dang.

However, I was angry, and fully intending to give him a good insult. I_ was _a muggle-born, but Elena wasn't. He had no right to call her that!

Elena obviously felt the same.

"I'm a pure-blood, you freak! Stop calling us Mudbloods!"

Arthur had caught up with us.

"Ah, yes, so sorry. You're the Greenweld one, correct?"

"Yes," Elena said icily. "What does it matter to you?"

"Well, you know, of course, that the Greenwelds are a highly respected wizarding family. I'm so sorry for mistaking you for a Mudblood. But I bet this one's a Mudblood," he said, gesturing toward me.

"Yes, I am, but you know that's not the word for it. Or maybe you might not, since you're obviously a stupid git," I said. I thought afterward that it was a very wimpy insult. I'm not too good with that kind of thing.

"Are you quite sure you're not meaning to call _yourself_ the stupid one, and I'm been mistaken for the victim?" Arthur said. Then, he turned to Elena.

"Any time your family wants to stop hanging around with all of these Mudbloods, you just come to me. I can get you friends of the right kind."

"Shut up, Wong!" Elena shot at him. "I _know_ who my friends are, and you're not one of them."

"As you wish," Arthur said, walking ahead. "Come on, Matt," he said to the other boy.

When we got to the greenhouses, Professor Sprout was there waiting for us. She was short and looked just a tiny bit overweight.

"We'll be at Greenhouse 1 today!" she said.

We followed Professor Sprout, to the greenhouse. All we did was transplant these purply plants called Tor Lettuce into bigger pots. We had to wear gloves, because, if the lettuce touches you, you go mad and think you're a dog for a couple of hours. I think it also makes a dog think it's a human and start talking. Professor Sprout said she once accidentally touched a poodle with the lettuce. It spoke French and said its name was Marie, according to the professor.

Professor Sprout told us that we'd probably be a Greenhouse 3 on Monday next week, and then dismissed us. 

I spent the whole time we walked back glaring at Arthur and wishing I knew a knife-throwing spell. I'm not a saint.

Our next class was Transfiguration. It was really hard for us to find the way there. I got stuck on a trick staircase and had to jump off it into the hall, and Elena had water balloons showered on her as a present from Peeves. We had to get directions from various ghosts because we had no idea where to go. We got to the classroom about five minutes before the bell rang.

I chose a seat at the back of the room next to Elena. I like the back, because you're kind of isolated there. As I told you, journal, my friend, I'm a little antisocial. Then, I looked up to the front of the room to see what the famous Professor McGonagall looked like.

She was tall, and aging a bit. She wore glasses and had her black hair, with streaks of gray, knotted up in a bun.

She looked at us all.

"Welcome to Hogwarts to the two new students in this class, and to the rest of you, I hope you haven't forgotten everything I taught you last year. Open your books to page 2"

We took a lot of notes, and then we started trying to turn a ladybug into a button.

I was given a ladybug, and I thought about how I'd never done Transfiguration. I doubted I'd be able to do it.

I raised my wand high enough above the ladybug so that it wouldn't fly away, but low enough so that the spell might take effect. Then, I concentrated and tried to transfigure it.

I nearly jumped out of my chair in shock when the ladybug suddenly started flattening out. I wondered if I'd accidentally done a spell to squash the bug and kill it. However, as it flattened out it also developed four holes in its body, became plastic, and turned completely into a red and black button.

"I did it!" I whispered to Elena.

She looked and her eyes widened. She was so surprised that she lost her concentration, and her wand made a puffing sound and engulfed her in green gas. When it cleared, her eyes were watering.

"Tear gas," she said. Then--

"I can't believe you actually transfigured the ladybug! I'm never going to get mine done." She looked down at her desk and got a sickened expression. She'd squashed her ladybug while trying to clear away the tear gas.

We both raised our hands to ask Professor McGonagall for another ladybug. I wanted to make another button, and Elena wanted to get another ladybug and hopefully not squash it.

The professor came over and praised me for my button, then gave us both another ladybug. Elena pretended to glare daggers at me and laughed. I laughed too, and started trying to transfigure another ladybug.

I had two buttons by the end of the class, and Elena had one. I'd gotten a third ladybug, but the bell rang a minute later and I hadn't had time to transfigure it.

We had an equally hard time getting to Charms class. I had a rug pulled out from under my feet by Peeves, and Elena had some crutches dropped on her head.

Finally when we got there, we were about three minutes before the bell. We got seats at the middle. All the seats at the back were taken. I looked around me. I had Elena on one side, a boy on the other side, Kira in front of me, and a boy behind me.

Our professor was a woman with brown hair at about shoulder length. She also had lines in her forehead that suggested worrying about a million things every day. She introduced herself as Professor Granger.

I whispered to the boy next to me. He looked okay to talk to at the moment. "Is she _Hermione_ Granger?"

"Yes," he said. "Makes since that she'd be a teacher, doesn't it? She gives hard assignments. I'm Ben. You're Kara Ramirez, right?"

"Right," I said.

"Flirting, Ben?" the boy behind me said, grinning. He had brown hair and blue eyes--astonishingly blue. And believe me, I wouldn't say astonishingly blue' unless I meant it.

"No, Alex, shut up."

Alex grinned again and left him alone. I listened to Hermione Granger.

"Okay," she said in a business-like voice. "Today we're going to review our exam question for last year--who wants to try making the apple jump across my desk? Jason, how about you? As I recall, you needed a little reviewing on that, although that may just be my memory."

Jason, a tall boy with messy brown hair, moved up to the front of the classroom. He stood in front of the teacher's desk. The professor cleared everything into its proper place with a sweep of her wand and gave him an apple. He set it down on the desk. Then, he raised his wand.

"Wingardium Leviosa!" he said, pointing his wand at the apple. He made it shoot up to the ceiling, where it bounced off and hit Ben's desk, just missing my head. It was looking very bruised. Ben picked it up and tossed it back to Jason. Jason looked at it and winced in anticipation of how long he was going to be trying to make the whole thing work.

"Alright, Jason," Professor Granger said, with a half-smile. "Levitate it a bit lower, please. And make the wand movement sweeping, not jerky. That jerking is what's making it shoot up."

Jason said the spell again, and swept his wand upwards. The apple went in an upwards arc. Then, Jason missed the desk, where he was supposed to land the apple, and the apple went off through the open window and dropped to the ground. The class heard cursing. Andrea and Alex went for the window at the same time and saw a boy clutching his head. They told everybody else, and none of us could stop laughing for several minutes.

The professor put her head in her hands. "Okay, Jason, you can sit down. Can we get someone to demonstrate? James, how about you?"

A boy with brown hair and glasses went up to give a try with the apple. He made it go in two arcs across the desk. Boring, but at least somebody could do it.

Stacey did it fine, except for a little jerking while the apple was in the air, and then the bell rang. Jason took a long time.

Then we had lunch, which was pretty good, and now I'm in the Ravenclaw common room. According to my watch, it'll be time for my next class pretty soon, History of Magic. Hope Binns isn't still teaching

And you know one more thing, journal? Something tells me I'm going to be shyer than most people, but not antisocial anymore.

1:30 PM

Hi, I just got back from History of Magic. Guess who the teacher is? Professor Bradley! Ugh!

When I got to the History of Magic classroom (which took a while), there was Professor Bradley with her white-as-snow smile. I'm already getting sick of that smile. Thankfully, we were on time, because otherwise the professor probably would have given us a detention or something. I've never had a detention. It would be a strange experience for me, especially at Hogwarts.

The professor told us to open our books, and she told us about the subject of the first chapter. Then, she made us take notes on the whole chapter, and if we didn't finish, we had it for homework. Now, thanks to her, I have homework on the first day of school. We also have to write an essay on the good points of what's-its-name. I'm going to have to look up what's-its-name and see what it's actually called

I really hope, over all, that we don't have to take notes in every class. I'm exceptionally slow on that.

I have another class at around 3:30, and it's only 1:45 now, so I'm going to take some free time while I can. I can't figure out what my next class is. It's called "1st Year Special" or something. Maybe it's a class about 1st Year magic.Elena has it too, so that might be it.

Kira just invited me to play wizard chess, so I'm going to try that out now.

3 PM

I lost at wizard chess. My soldiers (Elena lent them to me) wouldn't listen to me half the time. They didn't trust me, and they'd go and rebel. However, I'm not even very good at muggle chess, so I probably wouldn't have won anyway.

It's half an hour to that "1st Year Special" thing. I hope I'll be able to find the classroom. And why didn't we get a book for it? I don't know

Anyway, I'm going to get some parchment and quills and go with Elena to try and get directions to the classroom.

6 PM

I just got back from my first flying lesson. Well, actually I did my homework five minutes ago, so I didn't _just_ get back, butI think about these things too much Anyway, I'm going to start by telling about the First Year Special', because I feel like it.

Elena and I were directed by The Gray Lady to a room on the 3rd floor next to a suit of armor.

When we got there, I saw Amanda and an otherwise empty room. She jumped up and ran over.

"Hi! Do you have any idea what this class is for? And the teacher's late."

"This class is a catch-up class for students that are any number of years late to magical school," said a._disembodied _voice. I whipped around. Nobody behind me. The voice seemed to be coming from in front of me.

"Who's that?" I said.

"I'm the professor," said the voice.

"Yes, but who are you?" Amanda said. "Are you wearing an Invisibility Cloak?"

"As a matter of fact, I am," the voice said, and a witch appeared, taking off a long silvery cloak.

"Um, hello," I said. "Why the dramatic entrance?"

"I just felt like it," the witch said. "I'm Professor Chant. I'm going to teach you, in as little time as possible, the important lessons in the 1st year plan."

"When exactly did they start this subject?" Elena asked. "I've never heard of anything like this."

"Oh, the headmaster just thought of it two years ago. We were getting some transfers that year, and he hired me to teach them the basics. I have pretty good skills in all the subjects, so I'll instruct you in all of them," Professor Chant explained.

"Why no books?" I asked.

"Oh, well, I'm just going to be teaching the important lessons, so no need for another set of books," Professor Chant said.

"Oh. Okay then!" I said brightly. No possibility of having to carry around ten more books!

"Let's get started," the professor said. "Sit anywhere you want."

The three of us took seats right next to each other.

"Okay. Today, we're going to just see how good you are already"

We did the easiest lessons in Charms and Transfiguration, and took a small test on the general subject of the magical world's history. Professor Chant also asked us about astronomy, herbology, and various ways of fighting different kinds of dark magic.

Thankfully, none of this was for a grade. I was okay in Charms and Transfiguration, but I was hopeless in history and fighting dark magic, and herbology, since I'd never learned paid attention to that stuff much. None of us had taken a single class in Potions yet, so we didn't do any of that. I knew a few of the constellations in astronomy (like the Big Dipper. I don't know that many at all.).

Apparently, I knew enough Charms to get through a fourth of the things you need to know for the exam. In Transfiguration, I knew about the same amount. In the other things, I needed serious teaching. I don't know how good I am at Potions yet.

Elena knew half of everything except History. She told me later that her parents hadn't wanted to bore her to death with that stuff.

Amanda knew the same amount as me in Charms, Transfiguration, and Astronomy, and she knew the same amount of Defense Against the Dark Arts as Elena. She didn't know any history or herbology either. Strange, that. None of us knew any history at all. 

Oh well. We'll have time to be bored with history later.

Then, we went with Professor Chant to our flying lesson, to see about that. Apparently, she teaches that as well.

She taught us how to hold our brooms and stuff, and then we rose about 7 feet in the air and came back down. Amanda's landing wasn't pretty, but she just laughed. I was surprised to find that I didn't have much trouble landing or taking off. Elena, of course, was the best, since she was a pure-blood and she'd learned how to fly already.

The professor was pleased with our flying, and after she talked to Amanda about how to land, she just let us fly around the lawn for a while. I went high and then dived down a bit. It was really fun, so I kept doing it. Another reason I kept doing it was that Professor Chant got really pleased. I just really like pleasing people.

Elena did a couple of loop-the-loops, but I didn't want to, because I didn't really like the idea of going upside down that high above the ground. I don't mind jumping from 4 feet up, but I don't really think falling on my head from a height of about 50 feet sounds too good.

Amanda just spent most of the time trying not to hit the castle, and doing stunts by accident in the process. I laughed at her a couple of times, and then announced that she was too lucky to be a real human being, because of all those stunts she did by accident.

Then, we landed (Amanda had a slight crash) and walked back to the castle.

I wonder what the rest of my classes will be like. I have Defense Against the Dark Arts with the second years and Astronomy with Professor Chant tomorrow. I'll just go to Potions with the second years and Herbology with Professor Chant on Thursday, and I'll have seen it all.

Now, I think I'll go down to the Great Hall to see if there's any prospect of dinner.

9-3-02

I just had Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I thought I'd tell you about it. Yes. You. My scrumpdiddlyumptious journal. Yes, I heard that nonsense word from Amanda. I'm not very good at making those up myself. 

First of all, guess who the teacher was. Lupin! Yes. _Remus Lupin_. I didn't think he'd come back to teaching

Anyway, he introduced himself (and insert the wide-eyed shock from me), and then we did studied some Defense Against the Dark Arts, which I am going to have to review, because I can hardly remember what we did. I have a really bad memory when it comes to some subjects. I think my worst subjects are going to be Defense Against the Dark Arts, and possibly Potions, because I was never that good at science, which is kind of connected to measuring out things for Potions, and I didn't remember a word Professor Lupin said from Defense Against the Dark Arts.

Speaking of Professor Lupin, I'm really surprised I haven't cornered some poor soul who knew Harry Potter and questioned them about his fifth, sixth, and seventh years by now. Maybe it's because I'm afraid I'll ruin the rest of the books for myself I don't know Well, I'm going to play some wizard chess (I'm hooked on it, even though I lost), and then I'll review the Defense Against the Dark Arts lesson

9-4-02

I had my first Astronomy lesson with Professor Chant at midnight yesterday. She pointed out some planets and stars (but not the few constellations I know), and then it was over. Not very exciting, especially as I was suffering from need of sleep.

I've got to get to Herbology now bye, journal

9-5-02

I had Herbology with Professor Chant today. It wasn't that different from regular Herbology, except the plants were a bit simpler. We'll probably be through with it soon, because it seems like such a minor subject. Hopefully, that isI don't really like extra work.

I have to go to History of Magic now, so I'll stop writing for the moment.

2:15 PM

So. My first Potions lesson. I'll tell you all about it, journal.

First of all, we had it with the Hufflepuffs. My first reaction was jumping for joy because Amanda was there.

Second of all, the teacher is horrible. My first reaction was thinking, "I hate this teacher," because I _do _hate Professor Williams

On my way there, we met Amanda going to Potions too, and, like anyone who knew me well would suspect of me, I jumped and twirled two feet off the ground. It's my favorite way to express myself when I'm supremely ecstatic.It's my signature jump! That's it. My signature jumpThen, I acted like a normal person and just jumped up and down a couple of times.

When we went in, we set our cauldrons by our desks. Heavy things.

Our professor, Professor Williams, was a black man who looked a little threatening. However, I didn't think too much of it at first. Now I hate him. If you make one mistake, he thinks of you as weak and under the standard level.

The whole time I was making my potion, he watched everybody critically, especially the new people (Amanda, Elena, and I). My potion was just a little bit too thick and it was a lighter shade of blue than it was supposed to be, and with just those little things, he wrote something down while giving all three of us a contemptous look. I hate to think what he'd do if I made it orange instead of purple or something

Thankfully for me, Kira noticed and gave me a few tips without the professor noticing, and soon it was exactly the right color and I'd thinned it out a bit. When Professor Williams came around again a few minutes later, he looked at my potion and grudgingly wrote something down.

I think this is the beginning of a beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeautiful friendship between me and Kira 

Another thing about him is this: If you're really good at something, he acts shocked, like he didn't expect you do anything more than be a complete dunderhead about it. When Elena got her potion perfect the first time (I congratulated her after the class), the professor just stared at her incredulously.

By the way, I like that word. Dunderhead. It has a funny sound. Dunderhead dunderhead dunderhead dunderhead.okay, I'm going to shut up about dunderhead now

Well, Elena says she's going to drag me to Professor Chant's class if I don't come on, or else she's just going to leave me, because that would be less trouble, so I have to go. Being dragged would be uncomfortable, and I can't find that classroom on my own yet! She can't leave me!

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A\N: So, you like, yes? Ah. No, you say. To be expected. Now, if you said yes..YAY! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! **YOLANDA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! **(because I feel like it) And then. THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'm done expressing my endless gratitude now. Even if you didn't like it and you would like to flame me and tell me what a stupid little dunderhead I am.PLEASE REVIEW!!!!!!!!!!! Pretty please with a cherry on top? ^_^

Woo-hoo! Dunderhead!

*muffles that part of my personality* Okay! Go, now! Before my crazy side takes over and has me leaning on the computer, typing and laughing my head off!

-Hermione2 


	6. The Quidditch Tryouts

American Witch

A\N: Hallelujah! Umwhy did I just do that? I don't knowI guess I'm just glad to be writing! Yup, that'll be it!

So, here's the sixth chapter. Yay!

Oh, and something to redeem myself in my own eyes: Not _chow_, ciao. Okay, I'm done redeeming myself

I hope these different fonts show up on Fanfiction.net, because I think all that writing in normal fonts gets pretty boringif they doesn't, just dismiss this paragraph as one of my odd ramblings

By the way, happy late Valentine's Day, likely to be **_very_** late by the time I finish this chapterEven though I think Valentine's Day is kind of pointlessoh well.

Disclaimer: Okay, stuff belongs to me, stuff belongs to J.K. Rowlingbut not the same stuff. Hopefully, you'll be able to figure it out.

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Chapter six

The Quidditch Tryouts

9-30-02

So. Hello, journal. Haven't written in a while. I've had a lot of homeworkand I'm also just lazy. Anyway, I have something to tell you.

I found out when the tryouts were going to be yesterday. October 4th, Friday. On the Quidditch field. I think I'll try out for Chaser or Keeper, unless I chicken out at the last minutebut I only have a week until the tryouts. I have to practiceI've also got a broom now. Firebolt. I'm so rich now, since muggle money is worth so much more when you change it into wizard money, that I was able to afford it.

It would be so great if I could get on the teamI have a sudden vision of just flying through the airon a horse. 

Okay, that settles it. I'm going crazy. No, I'm already crazy. The horse in my sudden vision didn't even have wingsMaybe I'll meet a flying horse and I'm a Seernah. I think I'm just crazy.

That might be the explanation for performing the Wingardium Leviosa spell on myself every time I eat a marshmallow and literally bouncing off the wallsThat hurts, by the way. I actually only did that once, because I got so hyper after eating a marshmallow that I wanted to see what it was like to bounce off the wallsI bruised my right knee. It hurt for two days.

SheeshI skin my right knee because I trip and fall on the sidewalk while walking my dog, I hurt it again in the same place, it heals and I get a scarI take a couple layers of skin off my right knee in a different place playing basketball, I skin it thoroughly in that place playing soccer, it healsAnd that's just my _major_ injuries on my right kneeI've still got loads of minor ones that I haven't told you about. Everything happens to my right knee. It's annoying.

By the way, I've got a few more friends. Andrea, Stacey, and Kira. And Adair, Adela, and the boys in Ravenclaw are okay, but not my best friends.

I don't know anybody in Hufflepuff or Gryffindor besides Amanda, and of course Amanda's my friend. However, we're not as close as we used to be, since we're in different houses. It makes me sadWe can't even get together at lunch, since we sit at different tables

I don't really like the Slytherins much. Thankfully, they're in Slytherin, so I don't have to pretend to think they're okay to get some acceptance at this school. Everybody besides the Slytherins hates the SlytherinsI'm a bit milder than most people. Nobody but Arthur Wong's really been too mean, and I would even be ready to forgive _him_ if he started being really niceI'm so weak.

Well, bye. Nothing I can think of to write anymore, and I have homework. And I have to practice my Quidditch sometime. I probably won't be writing again until sometime after the tryouts.

10-4-02

Guess what? I got called back for tomorrow in the Quidditch tryouts. At worst, I'll be a reserve! I'm so happy.

I like that word. Happy, happy, happy, happy, **_HAPPY_**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I'm done with that now

See, this is what happened:

I met Elena, Kira, and Amanda in the main hall. We'd dragged Kira into it through endless begging and me telling her I would call her "Smallia" (my Latin name for her, cause she really is Smallia) unless she agreed. Then, we went out to the Quidditch field. Amanda left us to go to the Hufflepuff tryouts.

There was only 1 player left on the Quidditch team: Billy Small. He was desperately in need of six more players: a Keeper, three Chasers, one Beater, and a Seeker. Yup, he definitely needed the Seeker, for one thing, if he was planning to win any games. He's a Beater. Unlike his last name, he's tall and looks pretty strong. No wonder he's a Beater. That's one reason I'm not going to be a Beater. I'm not very strong. I'm stronger than I look, but not very strong anyway. You can guess that I look pretty weak.

Anyway, he wanted separate lines for the Keeper, Chaser, Beater, and Seeker positions, and said he would wait a few minutes for all of us to get organized. Elena, Kira and I had a discussion about what positions we should try out for.

"Fine. I'm trying out for Chaser," Elena said. "Who's with me?"

"I'll try for Seeker. Aren't small ones better? That's one good thing," Kira said.

"Um" I said. "Um"

"Come ON, Kara! Make up your mind!"

"Stop nagging me," I snapped worriedly. "I'm trying. UmEeny meeny minie moe"

"KAAAAAAAAAAAARAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!"

"Okay, okay! And really, OKAY! I've got it. Chaser!" I said triumphantly.

"Okay. Now, pray that we all make the team"

"My mom says that's a sin."

"What? Praying?"

"No, of course not that. I meant praying about such insignificant things."

"WELL, IT'S NOT INSIGNIFICANT _NOW_, IS IT?!?"

I gulped and started praying. "Um, no." I never knew that Elena could be so fierce about a SPORT. Sheesh. 

Billy Small was calling for the lines now. Elena and I got into the Chaser line, and Kira got into the Seeker line. I saw that it was much shorter. I guess that was partly because they only needed one Seeker, and more because it was such a hard position that most people weren't that daring. Cool, Kira. Cool.

Then, Billy started with the tryout. We were supposed to do tests to see how good at flying we were. The Beaters flew around the Quidditch field while having baseballs shot at them, and used there bats to fend off the baseballs. The Keepers flew around the Quidditch pitch while having baseballs thrown around for them to catch, since the Quaffle didn't go very fast compared to the Bludgers. When the Seekers' turn came, I gave Kira a thumbs-up and mouthed, "You can do it!"

She smiled nervously, then got ready to fly. The Seekers had to fly around and do pretty much the same thing as the Keepers, except they had to catch golf balls instead of baseballs. I watched Kira as she was tested. She flew pretty well, and caught all of the golf balls except one. And she almost caught that one. She was certainly better than I had hopes of being.

Then, it was time for the Chaser's test. I watched as a fifth-year named Lindsa Weasley (I thought she must be a daughter of one of the Weasleys in the Harry Potter books), who was first in line, flew around the Quidditch pitch with the person behind her, a sixth-year named Richard Hamilton, defending and trying not to let her get around the Quidditch pitch. She got around in less than five minutes. She knew some useful tricks for getting around Richard, and I watched her use them so I would be good when my turn came.

A fifth-year and Elena, who were just ahead of me, flew around a few minutes later, with Elena defending. Elena was pretty good at defending, and the fifth-year was pretty good at offense. It took the fifth-year about 4 minutes to fly around the field, because she was pretty fast and all the offense got a head start, but Elena prevented her from going anywhere for about a minute at one time. After they finished, they got to sit down in the seats around the Quidditch field. Lucky things. I was nearly sweating and my legs were shaking slightly from nervousness.

I was offense. I got onto my broom, glad that Professor Chant had taught me how to mount without sliding off the end, because I would have looked pretty stupid otherwise, and zoomed off. 

To my surprise, I was going pretty fast, and gaining height every moment. I must have had a strong takeoff. Strange, with my shaking legs. I leveled my broom out so I could stay at the same height, then flew as fast as I could. I could hear the third-year, Anton Fiskits, flying just behind me. In a second he would be in front of me. What would I do to get past him?

Suddenly, I thought of a trick of my own invention, not Adela's. I suddenly braked to a stop in mid-air. Anton was surprised, and flew past me. He turned around and stopped too. We spent a few seconds just staring at each other. He was bigger than meWas this really going to work? I decided it _was_ going to, and told myself to stop being a coward. 

We rushed at each other, him coming in for defense, or for the kill, as I thought of it at the moment, and for me to try my trick and hope it would work. As I got close to him, I knew he was going to try and knock me off my broom. It would give him points with Billy, since there were no fouls in Quidditch, and it would show skill. When I got almost near enough for him to knock me off, I dived. 

Down, down, down. I was losing him. Yes! I hadn't felt so exhilarated in a while. I leveled my broom again, and put on a great burst of speed for the last half of the test. He was getting even further off, but not much, because he was really trying to catch up. I slowed down a bit when I saw the lines again, and let my toes skim the grass as I landed gracefully. I'd done it! _Yes!Yes!YES!!!!!!!!!!_ I was screaming inside my head. I couldn't believe it. I'd done so well. I stood stunned for a minute, and someone had to pull me out of the way when Anton Fiskits landed.

"Great job," the person told me. It was a girl who looked about the same age as me. 

"Emily Bell. Third year," she said. "I tried out for Keeper. You beat Anton Fiskits! From what I've heard, he's pretty goodand I don't really like him much anyway." She smiled, and the corners of her blue-gray eyes crinkled up. Nice girl. I liked her at once. And I'd heard that last name somewhere

"Thanks," I said. Then, a bit hesitantly, "Umdo you want to sit with my friends and me? They're up there," I said, pointing at Elena, Kira, and also Amanda, who had joined them after her tryouts.

"Oh. Them. They were pretty good too." 

I looked at her in amazement. She'd actually bothered to watch every student?

Seeming to read my mind, she laughed. "You're probably wondering why I'd bother to watch everybody. I'm just very observant. I can't help it, and actually I haven't seen the black-haired one..."

"She's in Hufflepuff. Amanda Bustamente."

"Oh...Why not sit with you? Okay."

Making small conversation and telling her how absentminded I was, and receiving some laughs (OH JOY!), we walked through the seats to my friends.

"Kara, you were GREAT!" Amanda said, jumping up and down, and upand downand upand downand up

"Stop! Please!" I pleaded. "You're probably weakening the seats with all that bouncing around, and I want something solid to sit down on. I'm still shaking! How'd you do?" 

Amanda laughed and said it would be for the judges to decide how well she did, and then I introduced them to Emily. Then, I sank down in a seat, for I was indeed shaking uncontrollably.

"Emily Bell? That's your name?" Elena said. "Are you related to Alicia Bell?"

So! That's where I'd heard that name! I said, "Oh yeah! Alicia Bell on the Gryffindor Quidditch team. I was wondering where I'd heard that nameSo, are you?"

"Well, actually yes," she said. "I'm her daughter. Muggle-borns? I'm guessing you got that from the muggle books about Harry Potter. That sneaky Rowling witch! She wrote a whole story about the wizarding world, and the Ministry dismissed it as harmless and said that the Muggles would just say it was fiction!" she fumed.

"Well, that's exactly what Muggles didand J.K. Rowling's a witch?" I said, astonished. 

"Oh, of course. How else did you think she knew about Hogwarts?"

"UmI don't knowI never really thought about it since I found out Hogwarts was real," I said.

"By the way, I'm a pure-blood," Elena explained. "I just like reading Muggle books. Personally, I think the books about Harry Potter are a great way to teach muggle-borns about the wizarding world."

"Well, yeah, I've never seen it in that light before. But you're right, the muggle-borns don't seem that confused about anything" Emily mused.

We spent a while talking until the Chasers were done trying out, and then Billy Small announced who he was calling back for another tryout tommorow.

"Okay, I want some people to come back tomorrow to try out again and narrow it down to the team and the reserves. For the Keeper, I want Christopher Kelly and Emily Bell. 

"Good job!" I said to Emily.

Seeker: Kira Henry--"

I cart-wheeled.

"--and Arnold Lee. Beater: George Smith and Arthur Walt. Chasers: "Elena Greenweld--"

I yelled in joy and hugged her.

"--Katie Seal, Adela Myers, Nicole Mead, Belle Wray, and Kara Ramirez."

No burst of joy. I simply sat down weakly and stared ahead in shock.

"Hello?" Emily said, waving her hand in front of my face. "You just made the next tryouts!"

"But I was soGOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!" I yelled, coming back to life and cart-wheeling, yelling in joy, hugging people, clapping my hands, and twirling in the air. It seemed quite natural to me at the time, but I can't believe at the moment that I was so crazy

"Is she always this insane?" Emily asked Kira, who was, after all, the sanest of the group at the moment.

"Ah, she's much worse with sugar. You give her a marshmallow and she's doing this on the way to her most hated classes," Kira said, shaking her head in a way that said It's a shame'.

"Hey! I don't do all of it! I don't hug people all the time!" I protested, dancing around with Elena. Amanda wasn't available to dance with, having gone back to the Hufflepuff tryouts to see if she made the team.

Then, I went back to my craziness. "Happy, happy, happy, happy, HAPPY!!!" I cried.

Emily looked down and started laughing uncontrollably. "Do you realize that everyone is staring up her from the field?" she gasped. "Apparently your voice carries"

I looked down, blushed, and promptly stopped dancing with Elena.

Elena yelled down, "What? We all made the second tryouts! Back off!"

Everyone looked away and started walking off, no doubt muttering about our sanity.

"There goes my reputation as a smart and sane person," I muttered. "What shreds that were left of it, anyway"

"What?" Elena asked. "You think your reputation is ruined? How?"

"Well, I just made a fool of myself."

"Oh, come on. No you didn't," Kira said. "It was funny."

At least I have a good chance of making the Quidditch teamYAY! Bye

10 PM

Oh God, you'll never believe what Elena did at dinner!

I was eating my chicken happily, glad about the Quidditch tryouts, when Elena magicked a megaphone. She stood up and spoke into it, saying, "Okay, I'm going to hold a survey everyone. Who thinks Kara Ramirez is dumb, and who thinks she's funny?"

I stopped and stared at her with my fork halfway to my mouth.

"I will place two papers on the High Table. Write your name clearly on either one, depending what your opinion is. For those of you who do not know Kara Ramirez, I will place a picture taken during theshe did after the Quidditch tryouts next to the papers.

I stared at her furiously as she came back from putting the papers and picture on the High Table.

"Are you insane?" I whispered furiously.

"No, just curious to see if the thought will enter your brain that almost nobody hates you, however much you think your social skills are zero."

"Oh God," I moaned. "Save me from the endless signatures on "She's Dumb".

"Oh, please," Kira said. "Lighten up."

"Where did you get a picture anyway?" I asked.

"You know that that walkie-talkie looking thing on my bag?"

I nodded.

"It's a camera."

"Ah. You could have told me!" I complained.

"Too bad. So sad." 

I strangled her until Kira restrained me, which was quite hard for her, since I'm a fair bit bigger.

I left the survery downstairs for tonight.

So, do you think I should kill Elena or rip the papers and photo to shreds?

Toodles!

9-5-02

I just finished the second tryouts--but I'll keep you in suspense for now.

When I woke up (and woke Andrea, Stephanie, Kira, and Elena by pulling wizard crackers in their ears), I went down to the Great hall with all the people mentioned in the parentheses.

Then, I went over to the High Table with Elena and Kira to look at the papers and then pull their hair mercilessly. I anticipated the shrieks with evil happiness.

To my surprise, only the Slytherins' signatures were on the "Kara's Dumb" paper. On the other paper, the "Kara's Funny" paper, there were signatures from the other three houses, and some of the signatures even had little moving doodles of people doubling up in laughter. There were even a few Slytherin signatures! I stared in shock and refrained from pulling Elena and Kira's hair.

A couple of Slytherins came over to the High Table. I glared at them. They'd said I was dumb.

"Oh, see, look," one of them said. "I told you they'd be in favor of funny'. Now, hand over the 30 galleons."

The other Slytherin sulkily handed over the money.

We had our breakfast of toast (it was quite good; I had a whole stack) and then we went to the Quidditch field. Everyone was already there, including Emily.

"Ah, here you are," Billy said. "We've been waiting for you. Let's get started."

"What are we going to do?" Emily Bell asked.

"I'm going to see how well you play on a team. You'll split into two teams, and we'll have a practice-game. I'm going to see how well you work together."

_Oh boy,_ I thought. _I hate practice-games._

We had 12 people trying out, so we put 6 people on each team (1 Beater each). I was on a team with Kira (the Seeker), Emily (the Keeper), and Elena (Chaser). I was the second Chaser.

And, of course, we also had a Beater and another Chaser, Arthur Walt and Belle Wray.

I jumped onto my Firebolt and flew off into the air when the game started, more confident than yesterday.

When I went to the common room, my first new for Andrea and Stephanie was "WE MADE THE TEAM! ME, ELENA, AND KIRA!!!!!! WOO-HOO!!!! YIPPEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", which caused half the common room to laugh.

And by the way, Emily Bell, Belle Wray, and George Smith made the team too. And Amanda made the Hufflepuff team.

Wellthere's really nothing to write about anymore, so BYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow. That was way too many exclamation marks

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A\N: Yippee! I'm done! And, as I predicted, long time after Valentine's Day! March 2nd! And it'll be even longer before I actually find time to post this Oh well.

So, did you like my new character, Emily Bell? She's based on a friend of mine. Of course, the real person is much more meekIt is "more meek" or "meeker"? I don't know. Oh well. I'm rambling.

And don't ask me where I got the idea. I really have no idea. These things just pop into my head. It's really annoying, because I never know what I'm going to think of and feel obligated to write down next

This is just a slight bit longer than Chapter 5. 28 KB, while Chapter 5 is 27 KB.

By the way, you know what? I don't think this story really has a point...The characters really aren't even that interesting...somebody comfort me! ^_^

Well, bye-bye!

Hermione2 

^_^


	7. The Quidditch Game

American Witch

A/N: Hiya, peoples! Woo-hoo! I'm on Chapter 7. Chapter 7. I've never gotten this far on a story without it going even more pointless than it was at the beginning or me giving up…Wow. 

I only got to Chapter 5 on the last one I tried to write on Fanfiction.net. Just shows that this isn't quite as pointless. Not quite, but getting there…^_^

Okay, I feel no need to say anything else before I start this chapter…so…enjoy! If you can…it's probably going to be exceedingly pointless…

Disclaimer: I own almost everything, but not EVERYTHING. Because, as you can see, EVERYTHING is a big word…and therefore a strong word. Ha ha…._no_. Not funny, I say. But oh well…

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Chapter 7: The Quidditch Match

10-6-02

Hola! So, how are you? You do not know because you are a journal. Never mind. 

The tree outside is making an awful racket, bashing against the walls. I wish there wasn't so much wind. The wind makes this queer whistling sound too. I don't like windy days…

Anyway, I started writing to say…I don't know. This is rather pointless. Goodbye.

10-30-02

Oh yay! Halloween tomorrow! I can't wait for Halloween! Yip yip HOORAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

By the way, apparently, they don't trick-or-treat at Hogwarts. Dang it. I liked that particular tradition, although my mom said I was getting too old for it anyway. Maybe I could go to the nearest Muggle town and trick-or-treat as a witch…No. Nearest town's too far away.

Although there is a feast. Yum. Good food.

11-1-02

Halloween was yesterday! Yay! 

It was great. There were floating candles, and the Great Hall was all decorated. And Peeves insisted on leading a band of ghosts to sing, and that was bad. Half of them sounded like dying cows…*shudder*

And the food was EXQUISITE!!!!!! There were cakes, and ice cream, and stuff…and more stuff….and more, and more, and MORE!!!!!!!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!! Okay, going crazy there…

Oh, and I found out when the first Quidditch game was! 

November 3rd. Day after tomorrow. I'm a bit nervous…

That's nothing to Kira though. She's all scared because she's Seeker, and she's talking about the whole game depending on her and stuff…

She's getting me more nervous than I would be normally, just by saying she's so nervous…

11-3-02

Okay, how about…I write about the Quidditch game. 

Well, I felt really nervous at breakfast this morning. I could barely swallow my food. Kira was even worse. She said she couldn't eat. Didn't touch anything except her water.

Elena, on the other hand, was grinning and eating great portions of food. Slightly paler than she usually is, but still grinning and eating even more than she usually did.

"What are you grinning for?" I asked, bewildered. 

"Oh, I think you'd rather not know at the moment," she said sweetly, still grinning.

I stared. "You haven't done something to my food, have you?"

"No." She burst out laughing.

"Okay, I don't think I'm going to believe that. Say this with a perfectly straight face--"

"This." 

"You know that's not what I meant. Now, say, 'I have not done anything to your food,' with a perfectly straight face."

"You have not done anything to my food."

"No! Say, 'You have not done anything to my food,' if you're so anxious to reverse it."

"You have not done anything to my food."

"Argh!" I gave up, exasperated, thinking I'd find out what she'd done later.

When we'd finished our breakfast and we had a couple minutes until the game, we changed into our Quidditch robes. We were playing Slytherin. I thought of that as a good thing. I wouldn't have wanted to play Hufflepuff, for example, since that would be playing against Amanda.

Then, we went to listen to Billy Small tell us the game plan. He told Kira to just circle around and keep her eyes open for the Snitch. Then, go toward it as fast as she could. If the other Seeker noticed, use some kind of diversion.

He told Elena, Belle Wray and I, the Chasers, to defend one Chaser each and score as many times as we could. We were all supposed to help the Seeker if Kira was in need of any help.

And of course, the Beaters knew their job. Hit the Bludgers as hard as they could toward the people in green.

We went out onto the Quidditch field. Billy and Marcus Fletcher shook hands, then the balls were released and we rose into the air. 

I saw the Quaffle hovering temptingly in front of me, so, without thinking, I grabbed it. No one on the Slytherin team had decided to defend me yet, so I zoomed off, unguarded for the moment.

"And they're off!" said Ben, one of the boys in my year in Ravenclaw, who was commentating. "Kara Ramirez snatches the Quaffle--transfer student from the US--and she flies toward the goal posts. There's Marcus Fletcher to stop her!"

Hearing that Marcus Fletcher was on his way to stop me, I looked around me, still flying. He was behind me, and gaining on me rapidly. I looked for someone to pass to. There was Belle on my right, looking toward me. I passed with some force and hovered in the air, hoping that it would be too fast for a Slytherin to catch. 

My hopes were denied. 

"Ramirez passes the Quaffle--and Fiskits snatches it!"

Apparently Anton Fiskits had a brother in Slytherin. Not surprising. He wanted to knock me off my broom, evil boy. My thoughts returning to the game at hand, I flew after Fiskits. He was going pretty fast. It took all my Firebolt's speed to catch up to him.

"Fiskits' got a Ravenclaw Chaser on either side--he'd better watch out--and Belle Wray snatches the Quaffle and passes it to Elena Greenweld--another transfer student--and Greenweld races toward the goal posts with Smith from Slytherin hot on her tail. Greenweld stops--what's she doing?"

I stared at Elena. What _was_ she doing? The Slytherins would all catch up with her!

"Oh, good move! Greenweld passes the Quaffle under the Slytherin Chasers to Wray and Wray races up the field. The Slytherins have noticed that Greenweld doesn't have the Quaffle and are going after Wray, Wray passes to Ramirez and RAMIREZ SCORES!! 10-0 in favor of Ravenclaw!"

I did a loop-the-loop without even thinking about my fear of going upside down, and flew back out into the field.

"Fletcher takes the Quaffle and flies toward the goal. Ramirez turns around to face him--she's doing a pretty good job of keeping him there--and Fletcher passes to Fiskits, who flies for all he's worth, which isn't much--sorry, Professor, sorry!" Ben said hastily to the Professor supervising him.

"Wray snatches the Quaffle--pretty vicious there--and flies the opposite way. Bludger from Slytherin Beater Gregory narrowly misses her--Wray passes to Greenweld--Greenweld puts on some speed and busts her way through the Slytherin Chasers--ought to be named Best Offensive Chaser--and GREENWELD SCORES!!! 20-0 for Ravenclaw!"

I cheered. YAYYAYAYYAY!!!!! Okay, that's enough "YAY"s…

"Fiskits takes the Quaffle down the field--and drops the Quaffle because he was hit by a Bludger from Beater Smith of Ravenclaw. Ramirez goes under him and grabs the Quaffle, speeds toward the goal posts, and is surrounded by Slytherin Chasers. Ramirez dives under them all and speeds off again, Slytherins on her trail, she passes and the pass is intercepted by Smith of Slytherin--doesn't pass fast enough, that girl--and Smith flies off--whoa! Ramirez snatches the Quaffle, must be pretty mad, and flies back to the goal posts. She shoots--oh! And the shot is blocked by Slytherin Keeper Lewis, who throws it back out to Smith. Smith flies down and passes to Fletcher--and Fletcher passes, only to have Wray intercept it. Wray flies down--then Fiskits takes the Quaffle and shoots--and oh, Slytherin scores…20-10…"

The Slytherin cheered; the rest of the school booed.

Emily passed me the Quaffle so I could take it down the field.

"Ramirez takes the Quaffle down the field--Fletcher coming up to meet her--does a little trick with her broom to dodge him--and oh! That'll have to be a foul!"

The Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Gryffindors were all screaming, "Foul! Foul!"

Fiskits had knocked me off my broom--just like his brother--and I was hanging on for dear life with one hand. I pulled myself up and sat on my broom weakly. I never want to repeat that experience again…The Fiskits are evil boys…

I said I'd take the penalty shot, and Belle Wray passed me the Quaffle. I looked around. The Slytherins were covering the other two Chasers, looking at me threateningly. I took a deep breath, and yelled, "Get open!"

Elena dived down suddenly and held out her hands for the Quaffle. I passed down to her. She caught it deftly and flew up the field, in front of all the Slytherin players. The Keeper came to cover her, and she passed it to Belle, who threw it through the goal.

"30-10 for Ravenclaw!"

Fiskits--Evil Boy--took the Quaffle down. He was making good progress and dodging all of us, when Ben, who was commentating, in case you'd forgotten, remarked, "Is that the Snitch over there?"

Fiskits looked down and saw a flash of gold beneath him, and stopped himself excitedly.

Kira saw it too and zoomed after it, looking like a blue lightning bolt. She must have an even better broom than my Firebolt. The Slytherin Seeker, Harry Rhodes, zoomed after it too, looking like a green lightning bolt. Kira dived down, reaching out her hand…and grabbed it.

The stands erupted. Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Gryffindor were screaming in happiness; Slytherin was just scowls all over. Ben jumped up and down.

"Ravenclaw wins the match!" he said, sounding ecstatic about it. "Ha ha, you Slytherins!"

"Powell, you're never commentating AGAIN!!!!!!!!!"

"Professor McGonagall…"

"DON'T YOU 'PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL' ME!!!! NEVER_ AGAIN _COMMENTATING, DO YOU HEAR ME?!?!?!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?"

"Well, actually I was going to say, 'Professor McGonagall…someone charmed your hat to be covered with pink elephants.' "

Everyone howled with laughter. Professor McGonagall's hat was all blue with pink elephants! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! I never found out who did that…*insert insane laughter from moi here* Of course she turned it back at once, and I could've sworn those big gray streaks in her hair got bigger than ever…Poor lady, so stressed…*insert evil grin from moi here*

Well, right now I'm lying on my bed in my dormitory, writing this and having a sudden insane urge to eat 100 candy bars (ah, the sugar!). I think I'll stop writing now, because my hand is getting so tired I think it needs a spell to hold it up…

TOODLESIES!!!!!!! (Don't you love my new word? *insert insane grin*)

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A\N: So, did you like the chapter? Please, please say you did…*puppy dog eyes* Although I don't really like it much…Hahahahahaha… 

This story has no plot right now…I quote Ginny Ha-Ha: "If you have a problem with my writing, blame my muse, who really ought to be shot." It would be fun shooting my muse, come to think of it…You may shoot my muse in your review. ^_^ Standard procedure: Yell, "DIE, SOLIQUA (I think of weird names), DIE!!!!!!", like you ought to be shut up in an asylum, then shoot the little wisp of a thing with a machine gun…^_^

The actual story ought to start in Chap. 8, so don't be surprised if I give up, with loads of apologies and saying again that my muse really ought to be shot…just kdding. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't do that, just 'cause I like to annoy myself by saying to myself, "YOU _HAVE_ TO DO IT, SOPHIE!!!! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Okay, I agree, that was a bit of an overload on the evil laugh there…^_^

So, TOODLESIES!!!! Please review! Do you like my new word?

~Hermione2 

^_^


	8. The Hall of Portraits

American Witch

A\N: Hellosies! ^_^ Here's Chapter 8. I'm not quite sure at the moment what I'm going to write in this chapterso expect an all-time high of pointlessness. ^_^

Dislaimer: Hello. Do you have a big parfae (pronounced pahr-fay, so that's how I guessed the spelling) with marshmallows as a side dish and pretzels to go? I think not. So I'm not going to write this, cause you know what belongs to who.

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Chapter 8: The Hall of Portraits

11-4-02

I can't believe what Elena did! Okay, here's the scoop:

About an hour after the Quidditch game was over, Kira was in the common room with us, and she turned into a walking funhouse mirror. Well, not really, but she looked the reflection from one. She was all curved from side to side, and she couldn't get herself straight. And her face was too big, while her feet were _way_ too small, and stuff like that.

Elena immediately took credit for it.

"Thank you, thank you," she said, gesturing at Kira. "Courtesy of the spell I put on Kira's food."

I opened my mouth to say she said she hadn't done anything to the food, but she waved me away, grinning. "You asked, Kara, whether I'd done anything to _your_ food."

I looked at her, and then looked at Kira. I started laughing uncontrollably, almost to the point of crying, I was laughing so hard.

"Excuse me!" Kira protested. "Don't laugh! When does this wear off? I can't support my weight on feet even smaller than they already were!"

"Okay," Elena said. "Tell you what. Try that Engorgement Charm to make your feet bigger."

Kira tried it, following Elena's advice. She lost control of it, and her feet were the size of boulders.

"Aaaaaaaaah!" Kira said. "Now I can't move my feet! Help me, somebody!"

I laughingly tried _Finite Incantantem_, and to my surprise, it actually worked. Kira's feet shrank to exactly the right size, and the funhouse mirror spell thingy wore off. Kira could stand up straight again, and she could walk.

"KaaaaaaaarrrrraaaaaaaaaaaWhy didn't you let me keep her that way for only 1 more hour?"

"Umwell, I didn't know that would work, honest!"

"Kaaaaaaaarrrraaaaaaaaaaaaa" And I got turned into a raven for my pains. Elena's quite a genius in Transfiguration.

"Hey," Emily, who was standing nearby, laughed. "She can be the Ravenclaw house mascot!"

I screeched angrily.

"Okay, okay, fine," Elena laughed. Then she turned me back.

It was pretty funny, even though being turned into a raven wasn't agreeable.

11-10-02

Hiya! I'm bored.

You know what? Amanda, Elena and I found out when Prof. Chant's lessons with us are ending. Elena's are ending at the end of this month, Amanda's are ending when Christmas break starts, and mine are ending at the end of January. I'm going to be the last one leftBoo-hoo!

By the way, you know what else? I've met this Hufflepuff boy that's really annoying. Rob Merry. He always teases me about writing little stories whenever I feel like it. Personally, I think he should be a Slytherin.

And there's also Andrea, who begs me for permission to read the stories. Rob and her should get together. Here is what their chief conversation would be:

Rob: Ha ha! Kara's writing a story!

Andrea: Really? I'm going to go ask her if I can read it.

So annoying.

I'm done writing now. I was just bored, and there's nothing else to write about.

11-30-02

Elena's lessons ended today. No Thanksgiving here, in England. It's an American holiday. Obviously they wouldn't have it at Hogwarts.

Okay, I'm done now. I just was going to tell you thatI'm such a boring person.

12-2-02

I came to write this as soon as I could. You'll never believe what happened. Okay, I was walking around after Flying Lesson, not very inclined at the moment to go back to my common room, andwell, I don't want to spoil the whole story in one sentence.

I heard people yelling in the room I was walking past, and I heard a door slam. Curiously, I looked in. There was no sign of a door anywhere in the room. There was no one in the room. But I'd heard yells, and no one had got out past me. I'd also heard a door slam, and there was no sign of a door. This was fishy. I walked in to investigate further.

There was a bookcase at one end of the room, a few desks that were almost broken from being old and unused in the middle, and a chalkboard at the other end. I wondered if there was a secret door or something. I went over to the bookcase, and then the chalkboard. 

Neither of them showed any signs of being a secret door. I went to walk out, disappointed, and tripped over the leg of a desk. Thankfully the floor was carpeted. I rubbed my stinging hands, which just hurt more, and turned around to glare at the desk, scowling.

Then, my eyes opened wide.

There was a trap door in the floor! The desk had fallen over quietly, pulling part of the carpet with it. There was a hole in the floor under the carpet, and I could see stone steps going down into blackness. _So _that's_ the door that slammed!_ I thought to myself. 

But, then again, why shouldn't there be secret passages at Hogwarts? I'd heard of plenty in the Harry Potter books, for example--but never one starting in a classroom, I realized. I was finding this for the first time! 

I wasn't the only one though. There was at least one other person, the person or persons who had gone through that door.

I disdained going through it for the moment, closed the door, and left. I wanted someone with me when I went down there.

Now I'm going to go tell Elena.

5 PM

The second I told her, Elena was immediately overflowing with interest.

"A trap door, hm? I wonder where it leads"

"Would you like to go down with me?" I asked slowly. 

"Oh, sure! Thanks!" she replied ecstatically.

We went to the classroom, but not until we'd gotten lost a couple of times, and I tried to figure out how to open the trap door again. I'd tripped over it the first time, so I didn't know.

Elena tapped it all over and pulled on different parts of it, trying to trigger the door. It seemed that it was only the one time you could get it openI was getting seriously worried that we wouldn't be able to open it. I ran around in frantic circles with my face in my hands, frustrated. Elena got up slowly as I was doing this. I couldn't see since I had my face in my hands, and suddenly, I miscalculated where I was stepping and tripped over the desk again. 

Elena and I had to scramble away as the desk nearly fell on top of us as the door opened. Apparently, someone just needed to trip on it, and it would open. Nice device. Person who invented it was probably really clumsy, so it was easy for them to trip every time they wanted to open the door.

I gulped and stood up, staring down at the blackness as the stairs went down. It looked freaky down there. So dark. But I shook it off and asked Elena, "Wands out?"

"Might as well," she said.

We stepped onto the staircase and whispered "_Lumos!_" Our wands started glowing with a faint light. We walked down slowly, down and down.

The staircase was cobwebby. Amazing how spiders could go anywhere, even through a trap door, to spin their webs.

Our steps were silent, because of the dust on the staircase. We tiptoed down, strangely afraid, and didn't talk.

I saw faint light ahead of us. I grabbed Elena tightly and pointed. She nodded, and we tiptoed down even more carefully than before. Now we had something to be afraid of, in case there was someone there we didn't particularly want to meet. The staircase ended, and we cautiously poked our heads around it to where the light was coming from. There was a rich, carpeted hall in front of us. It was so quiet it was unnerving. Furthermore, there were pictures on both sides of the wall that left almost no gaps for you to see that it was just the same color as the carpet and looked like velvet, of all things.

We cautiously stepped into the carpeted hallway and walked down softly, looking at the pictures. They were portraits. First, on the left side, there was a lady with straight brown hair and blue eyes, smiling kindly out of the picture. She waved. Ack. Moving pictures. It was a nasty shock at the time.

Then, on the right side, there was a man with red hair and a mustache the same color, with brown eyes. He adopted a stern, but kind expression and raised his hand solemnly.

Then, there was a full-length portait on the left of a man with knobbly knees and brown hair sticking out in all directions. He crinkled his almond-shaped brown eyes and stared at us thoughtfully.

"These portraits are giving me the creeps," Elena muttered. "Who do you think they all are?"

"Giving me the creeps too," I murmured back. "No idea." We sank back into silence.

On the right, there was a woman with wavy hair of a very dark red. Her round blue eyes shone as she slowly waved her hand. She shook her head slightly in the process, creating a dazzling effect as her hair rippled in waves down to the tips. How I'd love to have hair like that, instead of my stupid straight dark brown hair. _Why not dark_ red, I thought.

Next, on the leftand so on and so onThere were a lot of portraits. I soon stopped noticing their looks, but there was one chief thing I noticed. As we went down the hall, they lookedwell, more solemn, but also kind of happy. One woman opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something to us, but must have been enchanted not to speak, because she touched her throat softly, and she looked sad, but she smiled just a little. They were definitely giving me the creeps now. Another man studied us piercingly, like he could see straight through us, then waved us on, smiling.

The last person on the left was a woman with long, wavy red hair and dazzling round green eyes. She nodded sadly and did nothing.

The last person on the right was a man with black hair that stuck out wildly, and brown eyes. He had glasses. He was nodding also, and then he lifted his hand and pointed.

We looked that way and went around a corner. And there was the most interesting picture of all.

There was a dead end, and at the end, there was a very large portrait of--well, I recognized him as soon as I saw him, even though I'd never seen him in real life. _Harry Potter_. He nodded to us, and he was holding a piece of parchment.

We walked up slowly, awed, for we now both realized who it was, and I bowed slightly without realizing it at the time. Harry looked annoyed and pointed to his parchment.

It had a message on it:

_If you seek the answer to this mystery,_

_You will never find it, no, _

_Unless you find the key to the Seer's diary_

_And read it, page by page,_

_Until you find the prophecy _

_And come back another day._

_When you come back another day,_

_You will find the answer later._

_One by one, and maybe two by two._

Elena and I stared at the parchment. Harry Potter nodded, and then he held out the parchment. Suddenly, his painted hand went outside the painting, holding the parchment, which, to my surprise, looked quite real and not painted. I stared, then took the parchment slowly.

His hand vanished and reappeared back inside the painting.

Still staring incredulously, we backed away. Then, with me clutching the parchment, we suddenly came to the decision and ran down the hall, with portraits flashing past. 

We got to the stairs, breathing hard, and walked up. When we reappeared in the classroom and closed the trap door, Elena broke the silence.

"What do you suppose we do now?" she asked shakily. "Look for that Seer's Diary' or whatever?"

"I don't know yet," I replied.

We walked back to our common quietly, and now, here I am, recording all of this.

The parchment is lying on my bed. I'm going to hide it. I don't want it getting destroyed accidentally or anything. I'm going to figure out what to do tomorrow, with Elena's help. Bye until something else slightly freaky happens.

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A\N: Did you like this? Please say you did. *puppy dog eyes* And is it just me, or am I actually saying that at the end of every chapter? ^_^

I surprised even myself by not making this chapter totally pointless. And I got it all off the top of my head!

These things work so much better when you have no fixed plotsurprise, surprise! I didn't know that before I started writing this story.

Why is Harry Potter in this chapter, you ask? Well, I just felt like it, and I thought that you would like to see everyone's favorite little hero againspoiled childjust kidding. ^_^

And yes, I thought the poem was dumbI just felt like writing a poem the day before yesterday, which is the day I wrote that, and I'm not very good at them

By the way, this chapter is 16 KB. Another short chapter. What's with that? I feel like I'm writing just as much as before...

Well, bye-bye

~Hermione2 ^_^


	9. Christmas and Other Things

American Witch

A\N: Hola! I had a really sore throat this morning and I could barely talk, so my very nice parents let me stay home from school! Now I get to write! And Spring Break starts today after school anyway! Yay, nice parents! ^_^ 

Too bad my dad took the computer with the Internet for repairs though (the screen did weird stuff, flashed purple, for example), cause I could have gotten on the Internet tooAnd I didn't mind the purple flashes

Ah, yes, you know that girl I mentioned in Chapter 6? Stephanie? Yes, well, that's Stacey. I decided to change her name in the middle of the chapter without telling anybodyHa ha! Actually, I couldn't remember what I'd named her and I was writing some of it on paper without the computer near, so I just made up a new name. Glad to clear that up. And I'm going to call her Stephanie from now on because I like that name better.

So, how about I write the chapter now? Probably going to be pointless, but what the heck^_^

Disclaimer: You know.

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Chapter 9: Christmas and Other Things

12-7-02

I'm nearly bored to tears (I like that expression), and also exasperated. Elena, Amanda (who we told and got to help) and I spent nearly all of yesterday after classes looking for the Seer's Diary or the stupid key, and we didn't find anything. It's especially hard because they're probably going to be disguised in some way, and we have no idea what they look like.

I mean, there's millions of ways you could disguise a key, and a diarywell, I don't really know any disguises for them, but I bet a Seer could think of plenty of ways.

And you know, I wonder why in the first place we even went down there and got annoyed by Harry Potter's bit of parchment. I'd go down there and give him a piece of my mind, except I'm willing to bet there will be yet another parchment in his hand, and I really don't like things I can't figure out.

12-19-02

I just had a nice time doing detention in the attic, weirdo that I am!

Here's the story:

Elena had charmed Arthur Wong's hair with blue and green polka-dots, because he hadn't bothered us for a while and he was starting to get annoying again, and Amanda and I were with her at the time. Professor Bradley, who's unfortunately the head of our house, gave both of us a detention to clean up the attic of the castle, and we went up there very tired and bored and hopeless we were going to get it cleaned.

However, we started trying to clean it, and sorted all of the things in the attic that looked like useless junk into a pile. Then, we started doing spells on the walls and floor and all the junk that had a use to make them all dusted off and clean, because dear Ms. Bradley (not) had forgotten to tell us that we couldn't use magic.

Then, we started sorting through the useless junk to see if we wanted any of it before we threw it away. There were old magazines up there, wizard and muggle, and we decided to keep those in the rubbish pile. Then came bits and pieces of wood and things. We threw that away too. But then there were the books, which Amanda had thrown into the pile carelessly.

"You weirdo!" I was shrieking. "These aren't junk! You know I love books!"

"Sorry," Amanda said, shrugging.

I sorted through them eagerly. There were some Potions books; I threw them away in disgust and Elena gathered them up eagerly, Charms books; I eagerly loaded up my arms with the lot of them, Transfiguration books; I took a couple of them and Amanda took the rest, and Quidditch books; We divided them among us in equal portions because we all wanted some. Then, there was a metal S with a medieval look to it, a photo album, some sheets of yellowing parchment, and a small black book.

Elena picked up the parchment, for some reason, and put it in her arms with the Potions and Quidditch books she already had. Amanda took up the photo album with a thoughtful expression on her face, and I picked up the small black book and the metal figure of an S.

Then, putting down our new things for a minute, we threw the rest of the junk out the window, landing all of it perfectly on the head of Professor Bradley, who had no idea who threw them and probably put them in the trash later. In any case, she scooped up all the things and started walking away, yelling curses (not spells).

Then, we picked up the things again and went downstairs, putting them in our dorms. And isn't it great, we'll have loads of time to look at them, because Christmas Break starts tomorrow!

12-24-02

Christmas Eve! Christmas Eve! YAY!!!! I get presents tomorrow! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha..

Anyway, I've had four days since Christmas break started, and Amanda ended her lessons with Prof. Chant when we left school for the Break. I'm the only one left nowsniff, sniff. 

I've gone home for Christmas, and given Amanda and Elena my phone number. They've given me theirs too, and we've chatted quite a bit during the five days. Elena has a phone, even though she's a pure-blood, because she's got a Muggle brother and her family wanted to keep up the act of being Muggles so he wouldn't feel left out. I've also gone over to Amanda's house some, and called some of my old Muggle friends. I can't visit Elena, though, because she lives in California.

My mom was really glad to see me. She hugged me really tight, until she was almost choking the breath out of me, and asked if I'd had a nice time at Hogwarts. I said yes, of course, because I have been having fun, but I didn't tell her about the hall full of portraits and all that, because she would probably spoil my fun one way or anothermy mother is really nice, but she has a way of making things not as fun as they were before.

My dad was glad to see me too. He swung me up in the air before a person could say knife, and happiness must have brought him that strength, because I've been too heavy for him since I was, say, eight. I didn't tell him about the portraits and stuff either, because he would ask me too many questions I couldn't answer and perhaps try to warn me off, even though there's absolutely no danger in the whole thing.

When I met my old Muggle friends again, it was rather awkward, because we hadn't seen each other in such a long time, and I had to lie to them about why I was going to a boarding school, not to mention lying about its name and what was taught there, obviously. And I'm not good at lying. We didn't have such a great time as I'd expected. I don't think I'll get in touch with them again, because I don't think any of us had much fun.

I've spent most of my time reading my new books. As a Christmas present, I've promised myself that I'll read the little black one tomorrow, because that looks like the most interesting. I've hardly been able to stop myself from reading it before Christmas.

I've sent Elena a big package of pranks with Lilac (my owl, in case you've forgotten since I haven't mentioned her in a while) from a little wizarding town that happens to be a few hours away from us, and I'm going to give Amanda a piece of string. Just kidding! I'm actually going to give her a nice little silver bracelet. She likes wearing jewelry a lot more than me, so I know it'll be appreciated.

I've decided to rake the lawn for free for my mother, and give one of my magic-related books to my father, because he's read the Harry Potter books too and I bet he'd like to see a book related to the magical world.

Now, to wait for Christmas!

12-25-02

Christmas is wonderful this year!

I got a book of Charms from Andrea and Stephanie, sent by Andrea's owl, Toidi. I'm willing to bet that it's "idiot" spelled backwards. It kept bumping into the rafters before I sent it off, and where else would Andrea think of a name like Toidi?

Elena sent me a present with her owl too. It's a really thick, thick, thick, thick, thick book which I am going to LOVE. Yes, I know I'm insane. But I like thick books. And this one is a collection of long stories on the kind of subject I like, all about kingdoms and princesses and enchantmentsyes, I really do like that kind of story. It's my favorite kind of fiction book. I don't know why, but I just think they're more interesting than any other type of book.

Kira sent me a book on Quidditch with her owl. I think I'll enjoy reading it.

Amanda sent me some lip gloss and nail polish which had a note attached to it, "You don't like anything girly, you even hate pink. At least wear some minor makeup." And they were both PINK. Ugh. I'm not planning to actually use any of it. I think I'll send it to that girl at my old school who was two years older than me and always put on too much eyeshadow and stuffThat gift was disappointingAnd especially disappointing after I bought her that nice bracelet, which SHE'S actually going to WEAR, probably constantly, while I'm NEVER going to wear that makeupI think she gave that to me just to annoy me.

Then, as the REAL present, as she stated in the note, she gave me a big box of Chocolate Frogs, about 12 bags of Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans, a gigantic bag of pretzels, and a gigantic bag of MARSHMALLOWS!!!! Yummyyummyyummyyummyyummmmmmmmmmmmmmmy! Large amounts of all my favorite candy! Yes, I've taken a liking to Chocolate Frogs and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans (let's just call them BB's EFB, shall we?) as well as pretzels and MARSHMALLOWS!!! 

I got some clothes and some more candy (yay!) from my mom. From my dad, I got a thick book, like the one Elena sent me, and slightly smaller, except this one's another subject of fiction. But hey! it's still fiction, so I love it!

My aunt and uncle and cousins gave me jewelry and books (everyone likes to give me jewelry and know I love books), and my grandparents gave me jewelry and a journal (everybody likes to give me jewelry and know I also like to write in journals).

So, I've gotten all my presents for Christmas, and now I'm going to read that black book.

1 PM

Slight problem with reading the black book. I can't open it! Seriously, I can't. I try and tug it open, and it's like the pages suddenly melt together with an unbreakable seal and turn normal again when I stop trying to open it. It's really baffling me. I wonder if there's some kind of lock on it

But what would a person lock a book for? Of course, there is that Seer's Diary. It might be the diary! Some people lock their diaries, although I never succeeded with that when I did it, because I kept losing the key.

There's also a weird, very queer design on the back. It's a circle with a wavy stripe inside it. The stripe is deeper than the rest and there are also little deepened circles connected to the stripe. I really have no idea what it is. I'm going to call Elena and Amanda and see if they have any ideas.

1:30 PM

When I picked up the phone to call Elena, it began ringing. Elena called me before I even got a chance to dial her number!

"I was just about to call you!" I said. 

"Yeah, for some reason I felt like you might want to talk to me. Anyway, I've got something to tell you."

"I've got something to tell you."

"The parchment from the attic writes back to you."

"The book won't open, and I think it has some kind of magic lock on it. I think it might be the Seer's Diary."

"WHAT?!?" we both shrieked at the same time.

"Ow, you're hurting my ears," was said in unison also.

"What do you mean, the parchment writes back to you?"

"It just does. I write something on the parchment, and it spits out an answer in my ink."

"Weird. Sounds like the diary from the second Harry Potter bookwait a minute! Ask it what it's name is."

A pause. Then, "It said it was Jenny Chapman."

"Hmnot Tom Riddle then."

"No. So, you think your book is the Seer's Diary?"

"Well, yes. It has some kind of lock or spell or something so it won't open, and there's this weird design on it, and I don't knowI mean, what else would you lock but a diary? And a Seer's diary would just have to be in an old and dusty place like the attic, don't you think?"

"Yeah, I guess so. I wonder if Amanda found anything strange about her photo album

"How about I call her and see? I have three-way-calling."

"Okies!"

Then, Elena got Amanda on the phone, and managed to get me on too.

"Amanda, have you noticed anything strange about your photo album that you picked up in the attic?" Elena asked.

"Well, yes, actually."

"What?"

"Well, see, there's this pretty girl with long wavy red hair in all the pictures"

"Go on"

"I am. Anyway, in one picture, she's writing in a little black book, rather like the one you found in the attic, Kara."

I held my breath.

"In another, she's waving her wand over some parchment, and I just feel like the coincidence with the black book is too strange for the parchment not to be that parchment that you found, Elena."

"Oh"

"What?"

"Well, just go on. Any other pictures that stand out?"

"Well, in one, she has this crystal ball, and she's gazing into it. In fact, most of the pictures are of this girl doing Divination stuff.."

"The Seer," I breathed softly into the phone. "You've hit it, Amanda. That girl is the Seer, I have the Seer's Diary, and Elena has her parchment that she's cast a spell on to make it answer as her. Apparently the Seer's name is Jenny Chapman."

"What?!?"

"Yeah, Amanda. The parchment answers when you write on it and says its name is Jenny Chapman. I'm guessing the Seer cast a spell on it so a bit of her personality would be preserved in the parchment."

"Where do you get this stuff, Kara?" Amanda asked, apparently incredibly awed by my brilliance. Ahem, getting a little swelled there

I went on. "And then I've got a little black book with a weird symbol on it that's got some kind of lock. It has to be the diary. Also, you've got a photo album that also gives us her appearance. We've got her thoughts, her looks, and her personality. We just don't have the key to her thoughts. We're going to have to ask her personality. Elena, could you write to the parchment again and explain this whole thing, and ask how to open the diary?"

There was a very long pause. Elena said at last, "She says she is the Seer, and that you open the diary by using the metal key that fits."

"Well, that really helps! Ask her to give us some answer that will actually help us."

"She says she can't. I don't know why, but she can't. She can say that it's not a spell though, since the key is metal and all that."

I sighed. "All right. Tell her we can figure it out on our own, but can she possibly give us some help if we need it once we get the Diary open?"

"She said yes."

"Okay. Well, I'll just try and figure out how to open it then, shall I?" I said sarcastically, doubting that I would be able to figure anything out.

"You do that." Amanda said in relief. She obviously thought I could do it.

"Bye. If I figure out anything, I'll call one of you." I said.

"Okay, bye." Amanda and Elena said. We all hung up, and now I'm probably going to stare at the ceiling until the next batch of Christmas festivities starts, wondering what the key is. Bye for now until sometime after Christmas is over.

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A\N: Yay! I got to the end of Chapter 9. I can't believe I got this far, and I still have ideas of what I'm going to write! I think I'm actually going to finish this story. Yipee! Hullaballoo! Sorry, that's not actually a word having to do with happiness, but I like it^_^

I'm surprised at myself for wting so much. Apparently, I'm really imaginative today. Maybe having a sore throat is good for story writing^_^ But I think I was just feeling unusually productive.

And you may not shoot my muse in your review for this chapter, even if you hate my story, because I like my story too much at the moment, even thought you're right, whoever's reading this, it's very dumb

Oh, and I think the KB is climbing up from its drop to 13. This one's 20 KB. My longest chapter was 28 KB.

Toodles, amigo!

~Hermione2 Demented Fanfiction Author ^_^ 


	10. The Diary

American Witch

A\N: Hey! Guess why I had a sore throat! I'm sick! Whoopee! Just kidding. Not fun.

My weak, shivering self is writing this to make it feel better. So don't be surprised if this comes out a bit weirdI'm not feeling too good about thinking much. But you know, I'll probably be well by the time I get this posted, so not all of it will come out weird

So, here's Chapter 10 for you!

Disclaimer: Hi. I'm sick. Buzz off. Sorry, I get in bad moodsThe main characters of this story belong to me, and also some of the minor characters, including Jenny Chapman, my bee-a-uutiful Seer with the red hair. ^_^

And somebody PLEASE R/R!!! If somebody, anybody, reviews for more than one chapter, I'm going to take to thanking them in every single chapter.

Obviously nobody likes this, because I've only got 6 reviews. But this is simply screaming to be written. Sorry.

And you know, I thought this was an original idea? But somebody told me that there are lots of stories about American witches. But the story is original! Really! And I thought of the whole thing by myself! I've never read any fics with this stuff in it!

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Chapter 10: The Diary

1-7-02

Came back to Hogwarts today. Classes start again tomorrow. We did the usual New Year's Eve stuff when the year started, stayed up until midnight, blah, blah, blah. And I'm going to be the only one in the First Year Special thingy. *insert sobbing from me*

Elena, Amanda and I haven't talked since Christmas. I want to see that parchment. Unfortunately, Elena hasn't made it yet. I went to Amanda's house and used Floo Powder (VERY un-agreeable process, it's like being spun around and around and around and you just can't tell the person spinning you to stop, andugh). 

Elena said she was going to take the Knight Bus though. Lucky her. Takes just a bit longer and there's all that jolting, but a least you STOP sometimes before you get to your destination. And then she has to walk up from Hogsmeade. Lucky again. She's probably loading up on pranks and sweets. The pranks are all rightbut FOOD? She's going to have to share with me!

Really, no wonder I'm so tall. It's like my body refuses to let me be fat and so I get to be tall because I eat so much. 

It's good to be back at schoolWow, did I just say it was good to be back at school?!? I can't believe myself! I used to be antisocial. Now I'm actually slightly friendly. This school has taken away my personality! Oh well, this new one's more fun.

Oh, look! I just looked out the window and Elena's here! And then there's Kira, Andrea, and Stephanie in a carriage.

Goodbye! Going to greet my friends. I'd better throw this journal somewhere on the floor now, because it's quite difficult to write with Amanda dragging me downstairs by my wrist.

2 PM

Amanda and I greeted Elena, Kira, Andrea, and Stephanie, and then we talked for a bit. We all asked each other if we liked our Christmas presents and we all did, except I told Amanda that Idid not really like the makeup. She just laughed and said she knew I wouldn't. So I told her that unless she wanted a very complicated curse on her, she was never going to give me makeup for CHRISTMAS again. I mean, if that was all she'd given me, she would have ruined my good mood! And I can't get into a bad mood on Christmas! No, no, no

Then, after I finished making Amanda promise under threats of curses that she would never give me makeup again, we went downstairs and had lunch. Pretty boring really.

And now, I'm going to talk with Elena about that parchment, since that is much more interesting.

Oh, and speaking of Elena, it's her birthday tomorrow. I'm going to give her a piece of lint. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!! Sorry about that. Actually, I'm just going to give her some candy.

4 PM

Hello! 

Well, I played a game of wizard chess with Elena in our dormitory, which I lost, and then I asked her if she still had the parchment.

Her exact response was something like, "Of course, you idiot! Why would I throw it away? That thing's valuable!"

So, I asked to have a little conversation with Jenny Chapman myself, and she agreed and handed it over.

Hesitantly, I took out my quill and wrote, 

**Hi, Jenny Chapman. My name is Kara Ramirez.**

My writing disappeared from the page and some ink flowed back on in nice cursive handwriting. 

_Hello, Kara. Jenny Chapman the Seer at your service. Wanted to talk to me?_

**Yes, I did want to talk to you. You can't tell us anything more except that the key to your diary is metal, right?**

_Yes, and I said it had to fit also. Look for something in the shape of that wavy lineand something tells me it's right under your nose._

**You're kidding me. I looked everywhere for something that would fit the stupid wavy line. Nothing.**

_You did look, but you didn't look in the right place. You've had the key all along, but I can't tell you any more. Can't reveal much, or my whole prophecy would be ruined._

**So I'm guessing you can't tell me the prophecy?**

_Nope, sorry._

**Well, bye then. I guess I'll just look some more.**

_I guess you will. Goodbye._

The words faded from the page and it was just as blank as before. Didn't help much.

How long am I going to have to look to find that stupid key?

Meanwhile, I'm going to go see if anyone will have a snowball fight or something with me, because I haven't seen snow since I lived in Virginia (a.k.a. since I was four). Maybe one of the boys willand I could get Mandy (Amanda, since I never call her "Mandy" in this diary) to attack him with me

1-8-02

Gave Elena her present. Hugs, eating candy, blah, blah, blah. Other people gave her much more interesting stuff. I'm not too good with presents.

Also sent my dad's present (his birthday's on the 10th), a moving picture of me with a caption saying, "I can't believe it's butter magic! Haha" Y'know, that commercial "I can't believe it's butter!" Not very funny. But as I said, I'm not too good with presents. I did the best I could.

1-17-02

Hola! Haven't had much time to write since school started again. Too much back-to-school homework. In fact, it was sheer luck I got my homework done by this time today.

Snow's fun, although it's starting to melt. Ah well, at least it was fun while it lastedand it'll snow here again next year!

Haven't found the stupid key yet. Jenny Chapman is really starting to annoy me with her talking parchment that doesn't talk much.

2-9-02

It's my mom's birthday in two days. Sent her a Howler (I've just acquired some of those) singing "Happy Birthday to You". I wasn't really able to find a good present, so I went for a singing card (the Howler). And of course it's going to blow up after it's done, which will add a lovely little fright

I sent it two days early so it would be sure to get there on time. I hate it when _I _get late birthday cards.

2-17-02

I found it! I found the key! After all our days of searchingIt's almost too good to be true.

It was really an accident, although I will maintain to everyone except you that I figured it out all on my ownBut anyway, this is what happened:

Well, I was looking at that metal S that I found in the attic for the first time in weeks. I was holding the diary in my other hand. I just stared at the diary, because I really could not figure out how to open it, and I was wondering what use that S was to Jenny Chapman, because it didn't help us at all, although it would have been a good present for one of the Muggles that used to be my friend, Salina, since it had her initial. To amuse myself, I started throwing the diary from hand to hand, with the S still in one hand. 

Then, suddenly, as I threw the diary to the hand that the S was in, something went "CLICK". It sounded really loud in the silence, because I was just alone in the common room. I dropped the diary, and it rolled over when it hit the floor. And I noticed something.

The S had been pushed into the wavy line design on the back of the diary (that was what had made the click), and it fit perfectly. And suddenly, it all made sense. The S was the key to the diary. All I needed to do now was fit my fingers into the little circles at the sides and turn.

I did so, and as I turned, I discovered that the big circle around the line was really the outline of the lock, and the lock was turning. Then, something went "CLICK" again. I opened the diary.

And it actually opened! IT OPENED!!! On the very first page, it said:

_An Account of the Events_

_In the Experience of_

_Jenny Chapman_

It was her diary! I'd really found it!

I wrote Jenny Chapman to tell her of my success, and she said,

_Well done._

Then her words just faded into the page again. I think she needs to talk more

Then, I went to tell Elena and Amanda. At the time, Elena was sleeping in the dormitory, and Amandawell, I'm not sure where Amanda was. But I happened to find her in a hallway. It was a really strange hallway too. All the paintings had fruit in them, and none of the other paintings at Hogwarts even had so much as an apple seed. It puzzled me.

When I first told them well, the results were different. Amanda was normal and jumped up and down and wanted to read it, but I felt like saving it for tomorrow, and Elena muttered a spell in her sleep and sent me flying out the window on a carpet that I happened to be sitting on when I told her, to the amusement and slight disapproval of Amanda, Kira, Adair and Adela, who all came into the room just as I was flying out the window.

Luckily, I had my wand with me so I managed to keep the carpet in the air instead of crashing in the lake. Then, I flew around for a little while--fun--and came back. Amanda had managed to shake Elena awake without being sent out the window, and Elena grinned when she was told what she'd done. Then, I flew back in on the carpet, took the spell off it to stop it floating, dragged her downstairs and told her about the key.

This time, her reaction was the same as Amanda's.

They both wanted to read it at once, but I'm saving it for tomorrow, and I hid the key so they can't steal it. I just feel like we should do this one step at a time, because it feels very important.

Well, bye until we read the diary!

2-18-02

We opened the diary today. I'm sounding way too pompous to myself, but oh wellyou probably can't tell.

I just opened the lock, same as before, and we all looked at the front page that I told you about. Then, on the next page, the real writing started.

The first entry was from the day before she got her letter. Apparently, she was really bored with her life that day. She was a half-blood, and her parents hadn't told her about the wizarding world, because she hadn't shown a single sign of being magic. 

Then, on the next day, she got her letter when she was eleven. From what she wrote, she probably flooded the house in tears of happiness. She got her mom to teach her most of the spells you learn in first year in only a day. She was really excited about going.

The rest of the entries before September were about how she was getting ready and stuff, buying her things and all that. Also, while they were shopping in Diagon Alley one time, her mother told her that she (the mother) was a Seer. She didn't know that Jenny was a Seer as well, although she knew she could be. 

The next few entries are about her being welcomed to Hogwarts and her first few days there. Then, it just starts in on the rest of the year.

Jenny knew she was a Seer when she had a dream about Harry Potter falling off his broom (yes, she went there at the same time as him!), and he fell off his broom the next day during a Quidditch match, and I recall that from the books. That was when she knew. She trained until she could See at a high level.

We read a few predictions that she wrote down, but none of it sounded like the kind of thing we were looking for. It was just ordinary stuff really.

We also found out why she had the parchment and stuff. She charmed the parchment so her mother could communicate with her from afar, and kept one for herself. That was the one we found. The attic was her hiding place for the diary and its key; that's where she wrote in it. The photo album was just a bunch of pictures her friends and other people, including herself, had taken of her that she wanted to keep. She hadn't put the potion on them so they would move, so that was why they stayed motionless when we were looking at them, because she just had a Muggle camera.

And can you believe we've only read through half the diary? We've split the other half among ourselves, and we're supposed to alert each other when we've found a prophecy.

I get the first third of the half, and I'll tell Elena where to start reading when I'm done. Then, Elena gets the next third, and tells Amanda where to starts reading when she's through. Then, Amanda finishes it. If somebody finds anything before Amanda, she gets some other thing that she wants because she doesn't get to read it. 

We don't want to have to read any more than to where the prophecy is. We really should respect this girl's privacy, we all think. And Jenny told us very firmly herself that she didn't want us reading more than we had to of her diary. She was very reluctant to let us read it in the first place.

Well, I'm going to read the first third of the half now. That's confusing. Third of the half. Anyway, off to read!

10 PM

Well, I'm almost through. I've got about 10 more pages to read. Still haven't found anything very relevant, except for a few other dreams she had. She's getting around the end of her first year now.

I'll just read those last 10 pages, then go to bed, I think.

10:25 PM

Done reading my third. I've bookmarker where Elena's supposed to start reading. Didn't find anything myself. That means either Elena or Amanda are going to find it. Too bad. I would have liked to find it myself. My third ended just where the first year ended. That girl definitely liked to write. She took upabout 4 sixths of her diary, journal, whatever, with one year.

Well, actually, with my first three journals, I think it took me until around the beginning of the third journal to end my first year of writing in itJenny doesn't like writing as much as me. That, and her journal was thicker than my journals.

Well, good night! I'm tired.

2-19-02

Hi! I've given the diary to Elena so she can read it and reported my success, which was none, of course. I wonder if Elena will find the prophecy. I wonder what the prophecy is _about_. "The answer" isn't very specific. I'm guessing that it will sound important though.

2-20-02

Okay, here's Elena's report: She found an important-looking message in a dream, which she says looks like a prophecy, and she thinks it might have the something to do with "the answer" that we're looking for!

She didn't look at the diary until last night, apparently. And she says that she was just flipping through her third, and she felt she had this kind of knowledge of something, she didn't know what, that made her turn to the right page. It has to have something to do with Jenny. But I thought she couldn't tell too much! This is confusing

Anyway, I'm going to go look at the message along with Amanda, and then I'm planning to ask Jenny Chapman why she helped us when she said she couldn't reveal too much.

9 PM

I'm writing in the common room right now before I go to bed in a couple of hours.

I think the message is a prophecy. It's so weird and advice-like that it has to be, yet it makes sense, even if it's a weird kind of sense. Such is the skill of Jenny Chapman, apparently. Here it is:

**_One day, the world will be in great need, and there will be nine wizards and witches with powers surpassing most. They will help the world. It will be the task of the one who finds this message, not the one who hears it, to seek them out._**

**_And here is my advice to the one on whom this task lies: Look for all the certain signs, and you will find the Powers of Nine._**

**_First is the person who knows things they shouldn't. The Seer._**

**_Second is the person who ghosts follow. The Medium._**

**_Next, find the person who knows your every thought. The Telepathist._**

**_Then, find the person who does strange things without spells. The Psychic._**

**_Fifth is the person who all good things love. The Charmer._**

**_Sixth is the person who talks with ourdistant relatives. The Linguist._**

**_Next, find the person who understands the same group. The Interpreter._**

**_Then, find the person who survives many things! The Cat Mage._**

**_And last, but not least, find the person who seems completely normalbut looks are deceiving. The Expert of Fading._**

**_When you have carried out these instructions, The Powers of Nine will be ready to help._**

Jenny said in her entry that she remembered the whole thing perfectly from her dream. Weird, isn't it? I used to remember a lot of my dreams, but now they seem so vague when I wake up. And sowe found it. Does that mean we have tofind thesepeople? The Powers of Nine?

It will be so hard. I bet Amanda and Elena have already figured out that we need to look for them. At least we'll all have help from each other.

Well, good night. I'm tired and I don't want to think at the moment.

2-21-02

Today I talked to Jenny. She said good job for getting the prophecy, and now she really didn't know any more than us, and she said yes, we were the ones who were supposed to find these people. I supposed she meant to be lighthearted about the difficulties, because she wrote that all but The Expert of Fading would probably be easy to find, if they all had such strange powers. I'm liking her more now, now that she's not withholding any information, but they probably will not be easy to find, like she thinks.

I asked her why she'd showed Elena where the prophecy is if she wasn't supposed to reveal much information, and it seemed like she was really surprised that Elena had found it so easily. She said she hadn't helped Elena at all. Now it's _really_ confusing. And then Jenny began to get cryptic again. She was writing things like,

_She found it so easily? I wonder_

And then she was just trailing off in her writing and not explaining herself. Kind of annoying again. I wish she would stop that.

3-27-02

Ah, March. The boring month of the year for me. No birthdays.

We've talked a bit about the Powers of Nine (I think I'll just call it the PN), and come to the conclusion that we're never going to find them. Hooray! 

Actually, we've been trying to figure out how we can find the Seer, first of all. I mean, some Seers don't even know they're Seers, and we can't exactly put up an ad in the newspaper that says, "Everyone who is a powerful Seer and expects that they're one of the Powers of Nine come to Hogwarts to be inspected." No. I mean, nobody would even know who the PN (remember, we agreed on this abbreviation) were!

I guess we can just wait until the Seer shows him or herself. Or we could look for a spellI say that's what we do! Such good ideasI know why I'm in Ravenclaw. *puffs up proudly* Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.

Anyway, going off to do homework and then research where we can, hopefully, find a spell to track that puppyer, Seerdown!

Goodbye until my birthday (April 4th)unless something else happens

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A/N: Woo-hoo! I'm finally done! And I'm definitely well by now; it's been about two weeks since I got sick! And whew, is this chapter long! 25 KB or something...although bunny chan's, I think, are much longer...

PLEASE REVIEW, ALL OF YOU REGULAR READERS!!!!!!!!! (That is, if I've even got any!)

By the way, yay for bunny chan! Review _The Marauding Five_ series by bunny chan, just cause it's great! ^_^ 

I think the next chapter will be about Kara's birthday or something.I'm bored, can't think of anything else to draw on the plot at the moment, so, yes, it'll probably be Kara's birthday. As you can see from this chapter, I love birthdays^_^ Mom's birthday, dad's birthday, Elena's birthday, life's just full of birthdays!

And also, my birthday's pretty close to Kara's, although not the same day, so I just have to write about hers to celebrate.^_^

Oooooooooo-kays, bye-bye until I post this!

~*Hermione2 (I'm just adding more and more to that signature) 


	11. The Last Two Months

American Witch

A/N: Woo-hoo! Eleventh chapter!!!! And I've gotten this far…*smiles in wonder, and walks around in a daze bumping into things*

Well, did you like the tenth chapter? I did my best, although I know it was probably pretty boring. I am by no means the best author on this site. In fact, I think I'm one of the worst…^_^ Oh well, I'm never taken seriously anyway…

Oh, yes, something I overlooked in my editing (not that I do much anyway…^_^): I meant to put the year as 2003 in Chapter Ten. It's just that I've been so used to putting 2002 down in this story that I didn't notice until now. Sorry about that.

This is probably going to be the shortest chapter, and it's also the last! *crowd cheers* But BEWARE!!!! I vill be bak with a seequeeeeeeel! *someone faints, both at the horror of the sequel…and also the fact that I can't do an accent to save my life…^_^*

Disclaimer: Okay, J.K. owns…what J.K owns! And I own my stuff, especially Kara and the BIRTHDAY SONG!!!! No, I don't own the normal birthday song…if you keep reading you'll see what I mean.

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Chapter 11: The Last Two Months

4-3-03

Oh, a day before my birthday! I'm so excited. I've been trying to guess who will give me presents and what they'll be, but so far I've gotten nowhere except The Land of Being Exasperated and Impatient. Hahahahaha…..

I hope I get a book, and I wouldn't mind candy either…Yummy! 

So, now it's about the time when everybody is asleep but me, and I think I'd better hurry up and fall asleep so it seems like less time until my birthday…

4-4-03

I'm 13, and I made up a birthday song for myself! Goes like this:

__

*at normal speed* Happy birthday to me; happy birthday to me…Happy birthday dear Kara; happy birthday to me!

And many more, on channel 4! And Scooby-Doo, on Channel 2! And Frankenstein, on Channel 9! And Big Fat Lady, on Channel 80! And Big Fat Man, on Channel 10! And happy birthday to me! 

*slowly and to the tune of the can-can song* And, oooo-oooooh, CAN-DY, can I eat the candy; can I eat the candy; can I eat the *faster* can-dy-can-dy-can-dy-can-dy…CAAAAN-DYYYYY…

*fast* Candy, can I eat the candy, can I eat the candy, can I eat the can-dy-can-dy-can-dy-can-dy….FOR MY BIRTHDY!!!!!!!

Yes, I know it's demented…Goodbye! Have to attend to my presents!

4-5-03

My birthday yesterday was wonderful! I got enough presents to content me, and that doesn't have to necessarily be a whole lot, but it just means that I liked all of them enough to content me. And….yipeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm 13!

My mom and dad sent me a series of books that I've been wanting to read for a while, but I haven't been able to find them. Joy! Hahahahahahahaha…I like trailing off in mad laughter, don't I? It was probably my mom's idea. Even if she nags me a lot, she does think of good presents. I probably got the blankness when it comes to presents from my dad.

My parents also sent me some money that relatives and family friends wanted to give me for my birthday, but didn't know where I was.

Amanda gave me a small necklace with a sky-blue stone in the middle to match my favorite earrings, which I wear practically all the time. I love it. Sky-blue is my favorite color. I think I might wear that as well as the earrings, quite frequently.

Elena gave me candy, and I asked in a serious tone if she was just giving me back leftover candy from her birthday, making her laugh, which was my intention.

Kira gave me some rainbow-ink, meaning it changed colors as you wrote. I like that too, because I've never had a pen with that kind of ink, and I always wanted one. So now I get a whole bottle of it to use for quills. Yipee!

Andrea and Stephanie gave me a quill and a bag of BB's EFB each (Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans, remember, we agreed on that…). I wonder, did they plan to give me the same presents from the start, or do they minds work exactly the same way?

I gave everybody some of my new candy from Elena, and so they all felt like their presents have been repayed. And Elena's generous with her money and things, because she's actually pretty rich, so I've still got plenty left.

So, all in all, I got…(counting)…9 presents. Yay for me! Going to close with the mad laughter… Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha…

4 PM

You know what? I think, in honor of my birthday, that I'm going to stop looking for those nine people for a couple weeks. The whole thing really irritates me sometimes, and I think I need a break from Miss Cryptic Chapman.

So, I probably will not have much news for a while.

5-2-02

I got up in the middle of the night after having a nightmare yesterday, and Amanda wasn't in her bed. She's back now. I wonder where she was…?

I think I'll go ask her.

5 PM

Okay, here's the deal. Amanda told me that "okay, okay, I wasn't in my bed last night," and so of course I asked her where she'd been. She told me to follow her, and so we left the common room, and I had no idea where we were going. 

She led me down to a hall kind of close to the dungeons, the hall where there was all that fruit and stuff. Then, she found a picture of a bowl of fruit, tickled a pear, and…there was the kitchens! I should have known! I can't believe I forgot about them.

As soon as I came in, there were all these house-elves, bowing and asking us if we would like anything to eat. 

Amanda, who was probably well used to it, said, "I'd like…a couple dozen cookies, sugared strawberries, and potato salad." 

I felt a twinge of guilt that wizards made creatures work for them like this, but I ordered happily anyway, because I LOOOOOOOOOOOOVE food! Hahaha....

"Hm….let's see…maybe a small cake, with icing? And then…a bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream with mint chocolate chip ice cream! With hot fudge and caramel on top." I love ice cream.

They got to work right away, and in about thirty seconds, half the elves were rushing toward us with Amanda's food, and the other half were rushing forward with my food.

"Thanks for the quick service!" I said, gratified to get my ice cream so quickly.

They beamed, and then rushed away, except for one.

"I is glad to see you at Hogwarts, miss," the elf said.

"Oh, hello, Binky!" I said. "Thank you for the food."

"Yes, miss is so kind to thank Binky." Binky said, then rushed away with the rest of them. They were probably preparing dinner.

Eating the ice cream, I asked Amanda, "Why didn't you TELL me?"

Amanda gulped to answer more quickly, choked a bit, managed to stop choking, then said, "Well, didn't figure you'd care…"

"Oh, come on, you know I love food!"

"Okay, I just liked getting the food all to myself."

For some reason that I can't fathom even now, I laughed hysterically, as if at a funny joke. Amanda joined in, and neither of us could stop laughing for a minute. I finished the ice cream, and Amanda finished off everything except her cookies, and I'm eating the cake at the moment, spilling a whole lot of crumbs on my bed. Haha! These kitchens are a nice addition to Hogwarts!

We should tell Elena about the kitchens as a coming-back-to-school favor next year! Hahahahahahahahaha…

5-24-03

Well, this is goodbye to Hogwarts, and back to boring Texas! I'm going to miss Hogwarts until next year…Two months will seem really boring in non-magic Texas…and we can't even do magic over the holidays! Unfair, I say! Down with rules!

So, I'm just going to finish this, then go with my friends to wait for the train. 

GOODBYE, HOGWARTS! I'LL MISS YOU!!!!!!!!! ESPECIALLY THE KITCHENS!!!!!! Okay, I'm done now! Back to the train, then back to King's Cross, then back to *rolls eyes* "the home of the free and the land of the brave", then back to *rolls eyes again* "The Lone Star State", and finally, back to San Antonio and my boring house! Although I'll be glad to get there. I've missed that too. Haven't seen it since Christmas.

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A/N: So, didja like it? Hm?????? Some kids on my street are playing with a Frisbee in front of my house…distracting. I wish they would quit yelling about whatever they're yelling about. Uh oh…this boy on my street knocked over this little girl on her bike. I can hear the crying even with the window closed. The boy's just kind of awkwardly swinging the Frisbee in one hand now…Okay, time to stop watching the neighbors…

Thanks, if anybody new reviewed! And especially thanks for saying my story rocks, Hermione Potter! I feel so special now…*sniff, sniff* 

I guess I'll take a break from this story for a while before I write the sequel, unless I'm so incredibly bored that I have nothing else to do…However, I don't think that will happen any time soon, 'cause my birthday's coming up, and I've got soccer games, and I'm probably going to have a sleepover for my birthday, and I've got homework…and you get the deal.

Toodlesies! And that's my word! Copyrighted by moi! Haha! Don't steal! ^_^

~*)(*~Hermione2


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